Lockout Leaves Yankees’ 40-Man Roster Prospects in Limbo

The minor league season will continue as planned, but not every top prospect can take the field.

Like every other MLB team, the Yankees’ first two series of the 2022 season have been canceled. New York’s affiliates, however, have been sharing social media reminders that it’s business as usual for Minor League Baseball.

“The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders 2022 season is unaffected by the Major League Baseball lockout,” the Triple-A club tweeted Wednesday. The Somerset Patriots added that their Double-A roster “will feature the pinstriped stars of tomorrow.”

The Patriots are expected to have SS Anthony Volpe, the Yankees’ top prospect. He’s not on New York’s 40-man roster yet, which means the New Jersey native is free to play for Somerset. However, there are top prospects across the sport who are on 40-man rosters. Such farmhands are not eligible to play so long as MLB’s lockout is in effect. Minor league affiliates, meanwhile, cannot use such players for marketing purposes.

For the Yankees, that notably applies to SS Oswald Peraza, their third-ranked prospect, per MLB Pipeline. He has never played in the majors, but he’s on the 40-man roster after finishing the 2021 season at Triple-A. He has already missed valuable camp time because he’s ineligible, and he can’t suit up for RailRiders games until MLB and the MLBPA settle on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Meanwhile, Volpe is unincumbered and racing to the majors at the same position.

Another example is Luis Gil, considered New York’s fourth-best prospect. He mostly impressed over six major league starts last season. The expectation was that he would battle for a rotation spot in spring training. Instead, he has no idea when he will next pitch in a professional game, putting him at a disadvantage when he could be taking the next steps in his development.

Fellow pitchers Clarke Schmidt (ranked 5th) and Deivi García (11th) are in a similar boat, except they don’t have the recent big league success that Gil does. García actually struggled mightily at Triple-A last season; as things stand, he will get a late start on what he sorely needs to be a bounce-back season.

Other ranked prospects on the Yankees’ 40-man roster who could see their growth stunted include P Luis Medina (8th), P Yoendrys Gómez (10th), OF Everson Pereira (13th), IF Oswaldo Cabrera (16th) and OF Estevan Florial (21st). Gómez is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery. While unranked prospects, pitchers Ron Marinaccio, Stephen Ridings and JP Sears are on the 40-man roster, too.

All the young players above are missing out on reps, chances to improve and opportunities to advance their careers, showing that MLB’s lockout is not just impacting the league’s billionaire owners and its millionaire stars. Plenty of players without MLB experience – or mega-millions contracts – are dealing with the consequences, in and outside of the Yankees organization. Chances are some will face indirect effects when the lockout ends, such as rust, injury or being surpassed on the organizational depth chart by prospects who were not hindered by the 40-man roster.

The sooner a new CBA is reached, the more that can all be mitigated. Until then, a portion of prospects are without a place to play, regardless of Minor League Baseball’s plans.

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