Three NY Yankees Prospects To Watch In 2017

The August 1, 2016 trade deadline will likely end up being viewed as one of the most important turning points in recent  NY Yankees history. For the previous two years, the team had been attempting to straddle the line between rebuilding and contenting for the AL playoffs. The simultaneous collapse of several of their stars finally convinced ownership to blow it up and to fully commit to their youth movement.

With that being said, here are three NY Yankees prospects to watch going forward in the 2017 season:

Jordon Montgomery: Montgomery wasn’t considered a big-time pitching prospect when he was first drafted, but he’s since elevated himself into the conversation by exceeding his potential. He now ranks as the No. 19 prospect in the Yankees farm system and he’s likely to have a future with the organization. Despite the influx of high-end talent this year, the Yankees still lack starting pitching depth, though Montgomery could help solve that problem. Montgomery handled himself well by maintaining a 2.55 ERA with good peripherals over 102.1 innings at Double-A Trenton. He received a promotion to Triple-A in August, and continued to impress with a 0.97 ERA over six starts in Scranton.

Clint Frazier: The Yankees acquired outfielder Clint Frazier when they decided to part with Andrew Miller at the trade deadline. Frazier spent the majority of his season at Double-A in the Indians system. He played 89 games in Akron, hitting .276/.356/.469 for the RubberDucks in the Eastern League. He had only five games under his belt in Triple-A ball when he was sent to the Yankees. The Triple-A numbers for Frazier weren’t quite as impressive. He batted .228/.278/.396 with three home runs in 25 games for the RailRiders. He did miss a small amount of time with injury, which should be taken into consideration. With three outfielders in Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury and Aaron Judge ahead of him on the depth chart, the Yankees can afford to give Frazier more time in Triple-A to start next season. He only turned 22 years old a month ago, so there is no need to rush him to the big leagues before he is ready.

James Kaprielian: Kaprielian was selected by the Yankees with the sixteenth overall pick in the 2015 Major League Draft.  He briefly joined the Staten Island Yankees and Gulf Coast Yankees towards the end of the 2015 season. Kaprielian was assigned to Tampa at the beginning of 2016 season and pitched extremely well. Through 18 innings, he surrendered just three runs, held opponents to a .136 hitting average, and recorded 22 strikeouts while clocking 99 miles per hour on the radar gun numerous times.

Kaprielian made his Arizona Fall League debut in the second week of October and gave up only one hit through three innings of work. He notched six strikeouts, and the radar gun reportedly clocked him as high as 97 MPH, so it was an all-around encouraging outing. In an ideal scenario, Kaprielian would seem to be ready to join the Yankees’ rotation at the start of the 2017 season, but things are not likely to work out that way.

He will likely receive a non-roster invite to spring training once again. Kaprielian will probably start the season back in Tampa since that was where he started last year. If everything goes according to plan, he could end up joining the Yankees at some point next season.