Top D-backs Pitching Prospect Yu-Min Lin has Strong Reno Debut

The left-hander showcased his lethal off-speed pitches in a playoff game for the Aces

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Yu-Min Lin during spring training workouts at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale on Feb. 15, 2024. / Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

The top pitching prospect in the Arizona Diamondbacks minor league system had lofty goals in Spring Training of making it to the MLB by the end of 2024. While he will miss that, he came close despite missing extended time with an injury.

Yu-Min Lin started the year in Double-A with the Amarillo Sod Poodles and looked to have finished the year with them too when their season ended last week, but in a surprise announcement on Saturday morning, the D-backs had promoted Lin to Triple-A.

He was set to make one more start, this time with the Reno Aces in a must-win playoff game in order to get him Triple-A experience, playoff experience, and build up his innings. He missed almost two months due to facial fractures from a foul ball that hit him in the dugout.

Per Alex Weiner, the Diamondbacks will be sending Lin to the Arizona Fall League so he can build up his innings and this will give D-backs fans an opportunity to see a potential future ace pitch at Salt River Fields.

He's just 21-years-old and has now made his debut in Triple-A and has set himself to be potentially called up to Arizona by mid-late 2025, most likely after the All-Star Break. At minimum, he'll start 2025 with Reno.

In Double-A, over 19 games and 94.2 innings, Lin had a good 4.28 ERA for the league and stadium. He walked 30 and struck out 94 while allowing 104 hits but just 14 home runs. His xFIP was 3.94 indicating that he was unlucky to have such a high ERA to some degree.

However, over his last 10 starts, he had a 2.98 ERA over 60+ innings. He pitched well and showed no ill-effects from his injuries or an inability to command any of his pitches.

Yu-Min Lin showcased elite off-speed pitches in Reno Debut

Lin pitched 4.2 innings and gave up four hits, one run, three walks, and struck out two in a tough pitching environment that is notorious for pitches moving differently than the typical park.

Surprisingly, he threw just 10 fastballs out of 89 total pitches as he leaned heavily on his screwball changeup. That pitch was deadly as it garnered seven whiffs and averaged 83.9 mph and reached a max velocity 91.3 mph.

It's possible that Baseball Savant misclassified some of these pitches, but that's still an impressive pitch. Yet, that wasn't his most impressive pitch of the night. His curveball was elite. He had two whiffs on eight swings, but it averaged over 3,000 rotations per minute. Just one curveball was put in play at 40 mph.

In case one wasn't aware, the higher the number is for rotations per minute, the harder the pitch is to hit and the more it moves. Having that high of an RPM indicates that his curveball is MLB-ready and would be able to fool MLB-caliber hitters. It's similar to that of Seth Lugo.

His slider was effective as well with over 2,700 RPM and averaged 80.2 mph. However, if there is one area to be concerned, it's his fastball. It averaged just 91.6 mph and the max it was thrown was just 92.3.

It will have to be expertly commanded to avoid being hit hard by MLB hitters, however, Lin managed to entice a lot of soft contact against the Albuquerque Isotopes. The max exit velocity was just 100.8 as he avoided the barrel of the bat.

Only time will tell as to how Lin matures and builds muscle and develops. However, his potential is enticing with multiple potential elite pitches and if he can build up his fastball could have the requisite three above-average or better pitches to become a top-three pitcher in a starting rotation.

With the Arizona Diamondbacks having uncertainity in their rotation past next season, Yu-Min Lin developing will just help that issue become a non-starter. For now, he'll continue to learn and grow with the Reno Aces.