Inside The Pinstripes

Yankees Host Minor League Camp At Spring Training Facility

The New York Yankees began minor league camp this week as top prospects like Anthony Volpe and Jasson Dominguez beginning spring training despite MLB lockout.

Pat Ragazzo

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Although MLB and MLBPA are still in the midst of a lockout with just eight days to go before pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to spring training, this does not prevent minor leaguers from getting together with their organization’s coaches while the work stoppage trudges on.

On Monday, Feb. 7, several Yankees’ prospects were spotted at the team’s spring training facility in Tampa Bay, FL., participating in a minor league minicamp with coaches Nick Swisher, Rachel Balkovec, among others.

Among the minor leaguers that were on hand, included Yankees’ top prospects Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dominguez and more. And as everyone continues to hold out hope that the lockout will end soon, which would mean that big-leaguers could make their way to spring training afterwards, the organization is doing everything in their power to properly prepare these youngsters for the minor league season in the meantime.

While the Yankees definitely have some prospects to get excited about when looking ahead to the future, the strength of their overall system has taken a bit of a dip since last year.

Keith Law of The Athletic recently released an updated ranking of each team’s farm system, which saw the Yankees come in at No. 22, dropping eight spots from their standing in 2021 (No. 14).

According to Law, Volpe is the “crown jewel” of their system but acknowledged that they are lacking additional position players with star potential at the minor league level, beyond Volpe and Oswald Peraza.

However, Law believes that the Yankees’ farm is loaded with pitching from top-to-bottom, as well as high-ceiling Latin American prospects at the lower levels.

“The Yankees have long been among the best at improving velocity, but it looks like there’s a solid group of potential fourth starter types – don’t scoff, those guys are worth a lot of money – on the way, along with a group of high-upside Latin American prospects who were all in Low A or below last year,” wrote Law.

New York currently has five pitching prospects ranked in their farm system’s top 10. Two of these names are Luis Gil, who showed promise with a 3.07 ERA across six big-league starts last season, and righty Clarke Schmidt, who dealt with injuries in 2021. Deivi Garcia, 22, fell to No. 11 in the Yankees’ system after a disappointing campaign a season ago, but he also flashed some potential during the shortened 2020 season as well. 

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Pat Ragazzo
PAT RAGAZZO

Pat Ragazzo is the reporter, publisher, site manager and executive editor for Sports Illustrated's Mets and Yankees On SI websites. Pat was selected as The Top Reporter & Publisher of the Year 2024 by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) for outstanding leadership, dedication, and commitment to the industry. He has been seen on several major TV Network stations including: NBC4, CBS2, FOX5, PIX11 and NY1; and is frequently heard on ESPN New York FM 880 AM and WFAN Sports Radio 101.9 FM as a guest. Pat also serves as the Mets insider for the "Allow Me 2 Be Frank" podcast hosted by Frank "The Tank" Fleming of Barstool Sports. You can follow him on Twitter/X: @ragazzoreport.

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