New York Yankees: MLB Player Comps for Each Top Spring Training Prospect
Spring training 2017 is an especially exciting time for New York Yankees fans. Several of the team's top prospects—the building blocks of the franchise's burgeoning youth movement—are in camp.
Most won't crack the Opening Day roster, but they'll all have a chance to showcase the skills that could propel them to the Bronx sooner than later.
While we wait to see them in action, here's an interesting question: Which current MLB players do the Yanks' up-and-comers most closely resemble?
In making these comparisons, I'm taking into account position, tools and overall skill set. I am not—I repeat not—stating that Player X will be the next Player Y. The idea is to illuminate potential, not predict results.
I'm also sticking to current big leaguers only, so forget the unavoidable comp between shortstop Gleyber Torres and a certain retired Yankee captain.
The prospects listed are ranked based on my own analysis, but all are on the Yankees' 40-man roster or received non-roster spring invites, retain rookie status and feature in the upper echelon of the lists compiled by MLB.com, ESPN.com's Keith Law, Baseball America and Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter.
5. Justus Sheffield, LHP
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MLB Player Comp: Marcus Stroman, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays
The 31st overall pick by the Cleveland Indians in the 2014 amateur draft, Justus Sheffield came to the Yankees in the 2016 trade-deadline deal for uber-reliever Andrew Miller.
Overall, the 20-year-old owns a 3.33 ERA with 296 strikeouts in 273.1 minor league innings.
As MLB.com noted in May (via Brendan Kuty of NJ Advance Media), Sheffield has a "combination of explosive stuff and small stature [that] draws Tom Gordon and Marcus Stroman comparisons..."
As they deal with a muddled rotation, the Yanks would doubtless take a clone of the 25-year-old Stroman, who eclipsed 200 innings for the division-rival Jays in 2016 and lowered his ERA from 4.89 in the first half to 3.68 after the All-Star break.
4. Jorge Mateo, SS
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MLB Player Comp: Jose Reyes, INF, New York Mets
Jorge Mateo may not stick at shortstop, where he's logged the bulk of his minor league innings, thanks to the existence of Torres.
Mateo is getting reps in the outfield, per Kuty, where his speed and athleticism could play.
Meanwhile, he has hit .270 with 182 stolen bases in 323 minor league games while teasing plus power.
That conjures another Dominican, Jose Reyes, who burst out as a speedy spark plug for the New York Mets and made four All-Star teams in Queens.
It's not only me; MLB.com's Jim Callis made the same connection. Other than Reyes' serious off-field issues, it's a career path Mateo would do well to walk.
3. Aaron Judge, RF
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MLB Player Comp: Giancarlo Stanton, RF, Miami Marlins
After homering in his first at-bat at Yankee Stadium, Aaron Judge tailed off in pinstripes and finished with a .179/.263/.345 slash line in 95 plate appearances.
The 24-year-old basher possesses undeniable potential, however.
Giancarlo Stanton potential? Maybe.
There's a clear physical resemblance between Judge and Stanton, a pair of imposing specimens. It goes deeper than that, though.
Both men patrol right field with howitzer arms. Both have eye-popping power along with the tendency to strike out. Judge can follow Stanton's example, as Yankees hitting coach Alan Cockrell explained in January.
"He's a big kid, he's 6'8", so we've got to get him down into his legs," Cockrell said, per Kuty. "Everybody makes the parallels with Stanton, and if you look at the evolution of what he's done when he got to the big leagues to where he is now, he's simplified a lot of things and it starts from the ground up. Aaron is trying to do some of those things too."
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2. Clint Frazier, LF/CF/RF
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MLB Player Comp: Bryce Harper, RF, Washington Nationals
Yes, Clint Frazier has struck up a Twitter friendship (Twitship?) with Bryce Harper. The connection between the two players goes deeper, however.
Like Harper, Frazier is a brash, unapologetic personality.
Per Kevin Kernan of the New York Post, Frazier said:
"I play like my hair is on fire. It's fiery, like my personality. It's big hair, and I try to make my personality big. I think it represents me because it's different, I'm different, it's unique to who I am. It makes me one of a kind.
"
Acquired from Cleveland in the Miller trade, Frazier is also a five-tool talent who owns a .275/.355/.448 line in the minor leagues.
He's got the swagger. Soon, he could have the results. By the 2018-19 offseason, he could even have Harper as a teammate.
That, in turn, could escalate the Twitship into a full-blown Big Apple bromance.
1. Gleyber Torres, SS
5 of 5MLB Player Comp: Carlos Correa, SS, Houston Astros
Acquired from the Chicago Cubs in the Aroldis Chapman deal, Torres is actually worthy of the Derek Jeter comp I teased up top.
In November, the 19-year-old Torres became the youngest player named MVP of the Arizona Fall League. He's slashed .282/.356/.405 through three minor league campaigns.
There are resounding echoes of the Houston Astros' Carlos Correa, who won American League Rookie of the Year honors in 2015 at age 21 with the same complete-package attack Torres has unleashed in the minors.
"He's a strong young man who uses the whole field. He's got a lot of life in his bat," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Torres, per Mike Mazzeo of the New York Daily News. "He's played shortstop awhile, so I see why people are excited about him. And we're very excited about him."
All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.
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