Yankees minor league baseball begins today with a prospect preview

Low-A Charleston RiverDogs

As you can see, the Yankees have promising pitchers at every level. And although they have their weakest class currently in South Carolina, there are still some pitchers of extreme interest.

Chief among them has to be Glenn Otto. He came out of Rice as a long-reliever but has been converted to a starter, as was Chance Adams; take that reference as you will. Drafted last year, Otto shined in his brief debut in the Gulf Coast and Penn leagues, putting up a 1.35 ERA and 0.90 WHIP.

And while a pitcher of his pedigree should have done well at those levels, his 30 SO in 20 IP was enough to move to Charleston. Right now he looks like a very promising reliever who would need to add a good-to-plus third pitch to be considered a future starter.

That is still good enough to have him as the Yankees 20th best prospect, though.

But the rest of the really good arms here are almost definitely bound for the bullpen. RHP Nick Nelson has a power fastball that helped him strikeout 110 men in 100 IP last year, but not even a good secondary pitch. And that still has him rated 27th in the Yanks system, which shows its degradation.

The Class of 2017

Dalton Lehnen, like Otto, was drafted last year and immediately struck out 43 batters in just 33 innings. He also gave up 40 hits. But a lefty who strikes guys out always has an easier path to the majors.

Just added JP Sears, however, needs no such help. Here is how Matt Dean at MiLB described him:

"…former Citadel hurler JP Sears will make his return to The Joe just over a year removed from an All-American season in Charleston, when he ranked fifth in the country in strikeouts (142) and was named the Southern Conference Pitcher of the Year. Sears will debut as a Yankee farmhand after being drafted in the 11th round by the Mariners in June and being dealt to New York during the offseason."

While Sears is unranked and unseen by the Yankees, his stats from his 17 games last year in the M’s system speak for themselves: 28 innings pitched, 0.65 ERA and 0.90 WHIP with 51 strikeouts to 12 walks.

That will make for a strong staff in Charleston but not necessarily any future starting studs. But at least one or two of them are likely to make the majors.

However, while there are more position players with that potential here than at the level above, there are none so sure as Florial. There are still, though, several players of interest.