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New York Yankees: Scouting Report On OF Billy McKinney

By Benjamin Chase

May 28, 2016; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; A detailed view of New York Yankees hat and right fielder Carlos Beltran (not pictured) glove against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
May 28, 2016; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; A detailed view of New York Yankees hat and right fielder Carlos Beltran (not pictured) glove against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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May 28, 2016; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; A detailed view of New York Yankees hat and right fielder Carlos Beltran (not pictured) glove against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
May 28, 2016; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; A detailed view of New York Yankees hat and right fielder Carlos Beltran (not pictured) glove against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

The New York Yankees acquired OF Billy McKinney in a July trade with the Chicago Cubs. What sort of player is he?

Who Is He?

McKinney was originally drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 1st round of the 2013 draft out of high school in Texas. He made two stops with the A’s system that summer, playing with the Arizona Rookie League team and also with Vermont of the New York Penn League. Combined, he hit .326/.387/.437 with 3 HR, 3 triples, and 8 steals, flashing strong center field defense.

He moved up to high-A Stockton in 2014 as a 19 year-old, skipping low-A, a fairly aggressive move for a high school draftee in his first full season (by comparison, 2015’s #1 overall pick, Dansby Swanson, came out of college and started the season in high-A this year and was considered fairly advanced). As one may expect, McKinney struggled with the jump, hitting .241/.330/.400 before he was part of a deadline deal with Addison Russell from Oakland to Chicago that brought Jeff Samardzija to the Athletics. He finished out 2014 on a high note with the Cubs’ high-A Daytona team in the Florida State League, going .301/.390/.432, ending up with a .264/.354/.412 combined season at high-A for a 19 year-old, with 11 home runs and 6 stolen bases, along with a 61/100 BB/K. He was rated by Baseball America as the #83 prospect in the game, and Baseball Prospectus had him pegged at #81.

In 2015, the Cubs moved their high-A affiliate to Myrtle Beach in the Carolina League, and they started McKinney there, and he tore the league apart with a .976 OPS before being promoted to AA Tennessee in the Southern League. He had an overall season of .300/.371/.454 with 7 home runs and 31 doubles along with a 44/60 BB/K rate and was ranked #88 by MLB.com and #74 by Baseball Prospectus. One knock from Baseball America, however, was that he had moved from a center fielder to a corner outfielder at this point, and that changed his value pretty strongly, requiring more power from the bat.

The Cubs sent McKinney back to Tennessee to start 2016, and he was shuffling, to say the least, hitting .252/.355/.322 before he was part of the Cubs’ deal to acquire Aroldis Chapman. He’s moved to AA Trenton now with the Yankees and continued the same sort of hitting with their squad in 11 games, going .268/.348/.390. He did not make MLB.com’s top 100 midseason list, and Baseball Prospectus only releases a top 50 midseason list, so he did not make that either.

Next: McKinney's scouting report

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