Promises, Promises
We’ll start with up-and-coming pitchers who might see the majors but seem too far away. As a note, the numbers next to each pitcher are their final ones from last season (ERA/WHIP/Innings Pitched).
RHP Freicer Perez (2.84/1.14/123) is as promising as any pitcher in the system, for example.
But he spent his entire 2017 campaign at Low-A Charleston. One of the values of a deep system is that you don’t have to rush anybody and so Perez will rise higher on the Yankees’ radar this year, but it is doubtful he wears the pinstripes in 2018.
Apparently that means RHP’s Juan De Paula (2.90/1.08/62) and Rony Garcia (2.50/1.06/76) are far, far away, and don’t even think about Jonathan Loaisiga (1.38/0.61/33).
RHP Brian Keller (3.13/1.14/144) is on the bubble for this year, but with this many arms, the verdict here is that he logs no competitive innings for the Yanks in 2018.
And some pitchers are even farther away than that. RHP Nestor Cortes might have used his considerable off-speed repertoire to control the middles innings in New York, but he plays for Baltimore now.
One notable name has the opposite problem. RHP Domingo German already logged innings out of the bullpen for the Yankees last season–14.1 to be exact–so projecting him here seems redundant. The same is true for Giovanny Gallegos, another right-hander.
Now on to the pitchers you will see but have not yet. And we’ll start with a most unlikely one.