He Might be More Reliable than Tate
The completely unranked Rogers has been moving up in the system consistently every year since being drafted; his career ERA and WHIP (2.80/1.08) provide the reasons. And being a lefty doesn’t hurt, either.
Here’s what Brock Hammond at Pinstripe Alley had to say about him last year:
"Despite being unranked on multiple Yankee top prospect lists, left-handed pitcher Josh Rogers is starting to look like a legitimate prospect. There is a lot to like about Rogers. Like Jordan Montgomery, Rogers pitched in big games at a premier collegiate baseball institution, so he’s had experience pitching in front of crowds and against high level competition. Furthermore, Rogers has a prototypical pitcher’s build. He measures at 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds. On the mound, Rogers works from a low-three quarter arm slot. He uses a slider as his primary out pitch and a developing changeup to offset his upper-80’s-low-90’s fastball."
From the Man Himself
And this is what Rodgers spoke about his struggles last year and what he expects this season, from an interview with Matt Kardos and Pinstriped Prospects:
"For the folks who may not know, the surgery that you had to have was to remove a bone spur from your elbow, is that correct? “Yeah, I had a little bone spur on the tip of my elbow. It had been bothering me for some weeks up there. I feel like it affected me a little bit through the course of those weeks to the point where I just couldn’t do it anymore.” On the flip side of that, where do you think you need to improve the most and get better as you head into 2018? “I think that my body is a big thing and I am really going to be getting after it in the weight room and come into camp in the best shape that I have been in my entire life. Also, as a starter in our organization, the change-up has come a long way for me from two years ago. It has been astronomically different and it has been a huge pitch in my development.”"
It is still too early to project Josh. All we can say for now is he can handle the low levels of the minors. But this year, many of the important questions will be answered, and Rodgers will either rise to real prospect status or disappear off the radar.
And that does it for Trenton. The Yanks will advance Estrada eventually to the Bronx, but there are no other such sure things. There is some potential pitching talent here, but no starters are on the fast track.
But there might be one at Tampa who could leapfrog them all.