Here are BBD’s predictions for next years minor league rosters. These predictions are based on who we think will occupy each position for the majority of the year.
Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre
C JR Murphy
1B Kyle Roller/Kevin Mahoney
2B Corban Joseph
SS Walt Ibarra
3B David Adams
CF Zoilo Almonte
LF Ronnier Mustelier
RF Tyler Austin
UTIL Jose Pirela
P1 Manny Banuelos
P2 Brett Marshall
P3 Nik Turley
P4 Shane Greene
P5 Jose Ramirez
Other options: Vidal Nuno, Zach Nuding, Mikey O’Brien, Chase Whitley, Caleb Cotham, Michael Pineda, and Graham Stoneburner
Relief1 Mark Montgomery
Relief2 Chase Whitley
Relief 3 Francisco Rondon
Relief 4 Dan Burawa
Relief 5 Tommy Kahnle
Relief 6 Pat Venditte
Relief 7 Jeremy Bleich
Double-A Trenton
C Gary Sanchez
1B Saxon Butler/Matt Snyder
2B Robert Refsnyder
SS Carmen Angelini/Ali Castillo
3B Peter O’Brien
CF Slade Heathcott
LF Mason Williams
RF Ben Gamel
DH Ramon Flores
P1 Bryan Mitchell
P2 Matt Tracy
P3 Jairo Heredia
P4 Mikey O’Brien
P5 Zach Nuding
Others – Scottie Allen, Sean Black
Relief1 Branden Pinder
Relief2 Charley Short
Relief3 Joel De La Cruz
Relief4 Manny Barreda
Relief5 Taylor Garrison
Relief6 Rigoberto Arrebato
Relief7 Diego Moreno
High-A Tampa Yankees
C Jackson Valera
1B Greg Bird
2B Angelo Gumbs
SS Cito Culver
3B Dante Bichette Jr/Anderson Feliz
CF Jake Cave
LF Taylor Dugas
RF Yeral Sanchez and Daniel Aldrich
UTIL/DH Reymond Nunez
P1 Rafael DePaula
P2 Jose Campos
P3 Cesar Vargas
P4 Dietrich Enns
P5 Dan Camarena
Other Options: Evan Rutckyj, Luis Niebla, Rookie Davis, Gabe Encinas
Relief1 Tyler Webb
Relief2 Ben Paullus
Relief3 Phil Wetherell
Relief4 Eric Ruth
Relief5 Fred Lewis
Relief6 John Brebbia
Relief7 James Pazos
Low-A Charleston
C Trent Garrison
1B Bubba Jones
2B Derek Toadvine/Claudio Custodio
SS Ty Afenir/John Murphy (Avelino gets called up if/when Cito Culver goes to Triple-A)
3B Eric Jagielo
CF Aaron Judge
LF Michael O’Neill
RF Brandon Thomas
UTIL Kale Sumner
P1 Gabe Encinas
P2 Rookie Davis
P3 Luis Severino
P4 Giovanny Gallegos
P5 Caleb Smith
Other options: David Palladino, Connor Kendrick, Cale Coshow, Phillip Walby
Relief1 Nick Rumbelow
Relief2 Sam Agnew-Wieland
Relief3 Dillon McNamara
Relief4 Phillip Walby
Relief5 Chad Taylor
Relief6 Tim Giel
Relief7 Stefan Lopez
The next three are obviously the hardest because so much of the roster won’t be decided until after next year’s draft.
Staten Island Yankees
C Eduardo de Oleo/Alvaro Noriega
1B Renzo Martini/Chris Breen
2B Gosuke Katoh
SS Abiatal Avelion/Tyler Wade
3B Miguel Andujar
CF Jose Figueroa
LF Nathan Mikolas
RF Yeicok Calderon
P1 Chaz Hebert
P2 Joseph Maher
P3 Jordan Cote
P4 Brady Lail
P5 Rony Bautista
Other options: Omar Luis, Erick Canela, Dallas Martinez, Ian Clarkin, Elvin Perez, Felipe Gonzalez, Angel Rincon, and Caleb Frare
Relief1: Taylor Morton
Relief2 Edixon Mejia
Relief3 Samuel Garcia
Relief4 HectorBello
Relief5 Tim Flight
Relief6 Rich Mscheri
Relief7 Francis Joseph
GCL Yankees1
C Luis Torrens
1B Drew Bridges
2B Bryan Cuevas
SS Yancarlos Baez
3B Christopher Tamarez
CF Kendall Coleman
RF Sandy Brito
LF Alexander Palma
UTIL Dalton Smith
P1 Dallas Martinez
P2 Moises Cedeno
P3 Omar Luis
P4 Christopher Cabrera
P5 Ian Clarkin
Relief pitching at this level is a complete crapshoot
GCL Yankees2
C Jesus Aparicio/Brian Reyes
1B Allen Vallerio
2B Jose Javier/Junior Valera
SS Jorge Mateo
3B Dalton Smith/Melvin Aquino
CF Leonardo Molina
LF Frank Frias
RF Sandy Brito
UTIL Pedro Urena, Wilmer Romero
P1 Alex Polanco
P2 Ty Hensley
P3 Simon De la Rosa
P4 Domingo Acevedo
P5 Manolo Reyes
Other candidates: Dayton Dawe, Jose Diaz, Christoper Cabrera, David Rodriguez, Reynaldo Polanco, and Nestor Cortes.
One thing that strikes me about this list is that there are a good amount of starting pitchers who will get squeezed out of the rotation next season, one way or the other. Some of the tightness at the top may be relieved because the Yankees have a ton of holes to fill next year. Guys like Nuno, Brett Marshall, and Michael Pineda could be a big part of that. There will also inevitably be injuries that will allow many of these situations to work themselves out. There are solid players all the way down the line who could be squeezed out though. There’s a bottleneck of talent going from Staten Island to Charleston. That does always seem to be the case, but the Yankees are going to have to find innings for guys like Palladino, Kendrick, and Coshow.
The best positions of depth in the organization are clearly pitching, catching, and outfield. They have solid players top to bottom in those categories, and they have top prospects in each of those categories as well.
Areas of developing depth appear to be at first base, third base, and shortstop, with second base slowly creeping up (almost by association with shortstop). These are positions where there is not much in the upper minors, but there’s a lot of talent in the lower minors. Drafting Jagielo at third and switching Peter O’Brien to the position has done wonders for the third base depth in this system. You can add in that one of the best international free agent signings in the organization, Miguel Andujar, is starting to come into his own.
At shortstop Cito Culver put himself back on the map with a spectacular second half in 2013. If he can carry that into 2014, it would go a long way towards the health of his system. There’s not much above him, but there’s a lot in the leagues below him in the way of talent. Abiatal Avelino is the best overall shortstop in the organization. Thairo Estrada and Tyler Wade both have a ton of potential that they could tap into. Both had successful rookie campaigns and have some solid tools to build on. Finally, Yancarlos Baez will be ready to go next year, and Jorge Mateo is coming stateside. Baez was one of the big money signings last year and is a potential power hitting SS long term and Mateo has a similar toolset to Avelino. So basically it’s depth minus upper minors talent.
First base is probably one of the weakest positions in the Yankees minors. That said they do have one of the best players in the minors at that position in Greg Bird. It’s not the biggest deal yet because Mark Teixeira will be around for a few more years anyway, but it’s something the system will have to work on in the post Teixeira era, and maybe sooner if these injuries keep stacking up. At second base there’s still David Adams, Corban Joseph, Refsnyder, Gumbs, and Katoh. No real superstars in that bunch just yet, but Katoh does really look promising. The solution? Easy, resign Robinson Cano.
Overall there are a lot of things you can criticize about the Yankees farm system. Not enough superstar talent. Not doing a good enough job of extracting value from these players and at transitioning them to the major leagues. Not doing a good enough job at preventing injuries. Not enough top prospects at the upper levels. That said, the one thing you cannot say about this program is that it lacks depth. Depth is the most important thing for a system to have, so I’ll take this farm as a Yankees fan, and hopefully in a year or so it will start producing some more useful major league players.