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Yankees Prospects
·5 min read

The Farm Report: May 9-16

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Week two of the minor league season saw the Yankees’ system accumulate a 13-11 record. One notable achievement was Trevor Hauver being named the Southeast League Player of the Week after batting .556, a double, 6 HR, 13RBI, 7BB, and 9R in the opening week. He, along with Luis Medina, got some love from MLB Pipeline as part of their Prospect Team of the Week.

We also saw Jasson Dominguez get his first at bat, a double, in extended spring training.

Scranton Wilkes-Barre (AAA)

SWB had another productive week, with a 4-2 record and finishing in a tie for first place (9-3) with Buffalo. After an awful performance in his first start, Deivi Garcia has thrown like a top prospect, not allowing an earned run in 10.0 innings, recording 16 strikeouts, two walks, and only five hits in his two starts this week. He is the SWB Player of the Week.

The bullpen was particularly effective, giving up only three runs over 30 innings in the six-game set against the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. Nestor Cortes has been stellar, giving up no runs on two hits and recording 13 strikeouts in 8.2 innings on the season. They finish the week with the sixth-best ERA in the league (3.93).

Offensively,  SWB continued to put runs up at a respectable pace. They have the second-most runs in the Eastern League, tied with the Durham Bulls, outscored only by the Gwinnett Stripers. Chris Gittens had his second great week in a row, ending it at .323/.523/.774 (1.297 OPS). He has four home runs, 10 RBI, 13 runs, 12 walks, and ten hits.

Recent call-up Estevan Florial is 1-8 with a triple and three strikeouts in his two games. Have patience Yankees fans! Despite the big club’s outfield woes, he is not ready for the show. He has played only two weeks above A ball in his minor league career.

Along with Florial’s promotion to AAA, the big club promoted Miguel Andujar and Ryan LaMarre.

SWB begins a six-game set at the 2-10 Rochester Red Wings on Tuesday. The Nats’ farm team have scored the fewest runs (42) in the division after 12 games.

Somerset Patriots (AA)

After an excellent first week, the Somerset Patriots fell back to earth against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, finishing the week 2-4. It is still good enough for a first-place tie with Boston’s affiliate in Portland, matching their 7-5 record. Overall, it’s not a bad showing considering the Patriots boast only two of the Yankees’ top 30 prospects, pitchers Luis Gil and Glenn Otto, at 5 and 28, respectively. Somerset has scored the second-fewest runs in the division but has also given up the second-fewest.

The loss of Florial to SWB contributed to the lack of scoring.  He was the team’s leader in HR and RBI before the call-up. Thomas Milone continues his hot start at .324/.409/.649 (1.058 OPS).

Oswaldo Cabrera has reached base safely in all 12 games of the Somerset season. Saturday, Cabrera went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI and contributed one of the four hits and a walk-in being shutout on Sunday. The versatile infielder went 7-for-22 (.314) with a home run, three RBI, four walks in the six games against the Fisher Cats. The 22-year-old switch hitter is the Somerset Player of the Week.

Luis Gil continued his strong showing on the bump. In his lone start, he threw four innings, giving up four hits, zero runs with eight strikeouts. He lowered his ERA to 2.53. Ron Marinaccio still has not given up a run in 7.2 innings. As a whole, the team sports a 3.44 ERA, good for fourth in the Northeast League.

The Patriots begin their six-game series at the third place Hartford Yard Goats on Tuesday.

Hudson Valley Renegades (A+)

HV had their second consecutive 3-3 week, remaining in second place behind the Aberdeen Ironbirds.

Although not as dominant as his first two starts, 7th ranked prospect Luis Medina was strong in his lone appearance last week. He threw four innings, giving up two runs, two hits, three walks, a home run, and punched out six IronBirds. Even more impressive has been the Organization Player of the Week, Ken Waldichuk. On Tuesday, the 23-year-old lefty threw 3.1 innings, giving up 0 runs, three hits, one walk while punching out 10. Yes, all of his recorded outs were by K. He followed up on Sunday throwing four innings of 2 hit ball, no runs, and seven strikeouts on 60 pitches. MLB Pipeline’s 27th ranked Yankees’ prospect has yet to give up a run in three starts (11 IP).

Offensively, 4th ranked prospect Oswald Peraza is raking. The shortstop saw two pitches and produced two home runs for four RBI on Friday night. He would follow up with a 3-4 performance on Saturday and chip in a hit and a walk as Hudson Valley evened the series on Sunday. Peraza ends his second week at A+ with a .340/.426/.702 slash (1.128 OPS). He leads the team in home runs (5), RBI (8), runs (9), hits (16), and stolen bases (9). He looks for a quick rise to AA and is the subject of the Prospect Profile below.

If you want a look at Peraza in person, the Renegades travel to the Brooklyn Cyclones for six starting Tuesday. If you are in the NYC area, take the train ride!

Tampa Tarpons (A)

After a 5-1 start over the first week, Tampa followed up with a 4-2 record against Lakeland Flying Tigers in week 2. Their 9-3 record is good enough for first place, two games in front of their closest competition.

Randy Vasquez and Nelvin Correa have led the pitching staff. In 10.1 innings over three games, Vazquez has a 0.87 ERA. Correa has thrown 9.2 innings and has yet to give up a run. Matt Sauer, the Yankees’ 26th ranked prospect, has thrown 9.2 innings and given up seven runs over his three starts.

After an epic first week, Trevor Hauver has come back to earth some, but Pat DeMarco and Spencer Henson have picked up the slack. The shortstop DeMarco is hitting .324/.415/.647 (1.062 OPS), 3 HR, 16 RBI, and is the Tampa Player of the Week. Spencer, the first baseman, has slashed .400/.600/1.000 for a 1.600 OPS to go along with 2 HR and 7 RBI.

The Tarps look to expand their lead in the Southeast League against the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (6-6) on Tuesday.

Prospect Profile-Oswald Peraza (SS)

Age: 20

Height: 6’00”

Weight: 165

B/T: R/R

Rank: Yankees’ 4th (MLB Pipeline)

Team: Hudson Valley Renegades (A+)

Scouting Grades (20-80): Hit-55, Run-60, Field-60, Power-45, Arm-60, Overall-50

Peraza was signed out of Venezuela for $175,000 in 2016 as a possible plus hitter with potential for some pop. Over his three seasons (2017-2019) thus far, he hit 5 HR in 622 AB, although he already had some of the highest exit velo in the system. He appears to have changed his approach and matched his career total with five last week. Speed is also in his repertoire, as illustrated by his nine stolen bases this season without being caught. In his first three seasons in the system, he stole 44 of 54. His only action in 2020 was a handful of AB in the Venezuelan Winter League.

His career slash is .272/.356/.371 for an OPS of .726. He has committed 40 errors in his 156 career games, but that is not very high at his stage of development and playing on low-level minor league fields. Scouts expect Peraza to be a plus defender with a quality arm.