Mid-Season Top 10 Yankee Prospects

By E.J. Fagan

July 2025

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NOTE: The following comes from EJ Fagan's substack page and is shared with permission.

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The 2025 amateur draft is in progress. I’ll offer my thoughts once it’s done and we see some external scouting reports come in. Trade season begins in earnest as soon as it concludes. Put the two together and it’s a good time to check in on the Yankee farm system. A lot has changed since the pre-season.

#1 George Lombard Jr

Lombard earned the quick promotion to Double-A before his 20th birthday, but is barely holding his own with a 100 wRC+ driven mostly by walks. Still, I see a lot of positive stories about his makeup, leadership and overall progress. The Yankees are sending him to the Futures Game. I doubt that he’ll be in a position to grab the 3rd base job in Spring Training 2026, but I think he’ll still place pretty high on prospect lists this offseason despite mid numbers. He might even make a push for Anthony Volpe’s job.

#2 Spencer Jones

I’m declaring him back. He’s hammering Triple-A pitchers with a 1.200 OPS through his first 14 games, but his hot streak dates back farther. Jones started the season strong but with way too much swing and miss, .228/.372/.554 with a 36% strikeout rate through May 3rd. He went down briefly with an injury and returned at the end of May. Since then, he’s exploded for a .340/.417/.695 line with a 30% strikeout rate in 37 games. We’re not quite out of small sample size territory, but we’re getting close to being able to say that something changed. I’d love to see a swing guru do some before-and-after analysis.

Since the I still think that he gets traded, but he’s rebuilt his stock to the point where he could headline a major trade. But I also wouldn’t be shocked if he enters untouchable territory again. Jones is showing sky-high (think Judge before 2022, subbing a little contact for defense) potential again. And remember that Judge didn’t break out until he was a year older than Jones.

#3 Cam Schlittler

I covered Schlittler recently, so I’ll keep it short: he has great major league stuff, is having a great season in the high minors, and has a great track record of durability. There’s nothing not to like, including everything we saw in his first major league start. He’s in the bigs to stay. I doubt he gets traded, but he could make Will Warren expendable. The Diamondbacks want young pitching for Eugenio Suarez after all.

#4 Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz

Of the non-MLB pitchers on this list, Cruz is my favorite. He’s almost a complete package: 21 years old, healthy and pitching a real workload, four pitches and great stuff. He’s listed at 6”3” 160, but it sure looks like he’s put on some inches and a bunch of muscle. And he’s been arguably the best starting pitcher (and third youngest) in the South Atlantic League. The only concern is that his control, while improved over the last few years, is still below average.

Does he get traded? My guess is that he’s in major deal only territory.

#5 Carlos LaGrange

You hear a lot about raw, toolsy Latin American and High School kids who are still mostly playing complex league ball. Other than making a mental note, I just ignore them until they’ve started posting real innings in the minors. LaGrange was one of those guys before 2025.

But now it’s time to pay attention. LaGrange is a 6’7” lefty who throws 100 with a killer slider. I’m no scout, but I also see him getting lots of swings and misses on cutters and changeups here. He’s third in all of the minor leagues in strikeout rate and 10th in xFIP. His ERA is a little high, but all signs point to bad luck there. The Yankees definitely believe in him, because they pushed him up to Double-A. If he stays healthy (a big if, see further down on this list), LaGrange could be a top-5 pitching prospect in all of baseball at the end of this season.

#6 Rafael Flores

Of all the bat-first catcher prospects that the recent Yankee farm system has had, Flores was always the one with the best defensive scouting report. Unlike everyone else, he can actually throw runners out. And he hits too. In 150 games at Double-A, Flores is hitting a great .278/.348/.503. I’m a little surprised that he hasn’t been promoted to Triple-A yet, but maybe the Yankees are hoping to trade him.

#7 Roc Riggio

In a season full of breakout performances, Riggio might be having the best one. The 5’9” second baseman has .272/.385/.581 batting line in 2025, mostly in Double-A. Riggio was a sleeper prospect before the breakout as a strong defensive second baseman with a lot of bat speed, but I don’t think that anyone anticipated what he’s doing right now. He’s mostly locked at second base though, so he might be a trade candidate.

#8 Bryan Cunningham

Cunningham went down a month ago with an undisclosed injury. I can’t find any information about what’s wrong, but we’re now looking at an extended absence. That’s too bad, because Cunningham was looking like a solid mid-rotation starter in his first professional season. Hopefully he gets back soon, but staying healthy is hard these days. I could see him getting traded if he were healthy, but the Yankees are running out of time to prove it with a return to play.

#9 Ben Hess

Hess went down with an unknown injury in late May, but returned to play at the end of June. His control has been terrible, but he’s striking out even more batters than LaGrange. That’s basically the same story that we heard about Hess when he was drafted. I think he probably stays at High-A for the remainder of the season. The Yankees will try and keep him healthy and improve the control a bit. I have trouble seeing him being a major trade piece, but at least he’s currently pitching.

#10 Brendan Beck

I try to make one statement pick every time I write one of these lists, and Brendan Beck is my guy this year. He was a 2nd round pick all the way back in 2021, but pitched just 34 innings before 2025. But he’s healthy now, and has quickly shot up to Triple-A.

His ceiling is limited by a fastball that averages 92 mph, but he has slider-curve-change-cutter arsenal to back it up. I think there’s a pretty good chance that we look up in two years and see that Beck is pitching like a Merrill Kelly or Chris Bassitt.

But he’s also a huge trade candidate like JP Sears, Hayden Wesneski, and Randy Vazquez before him. I think that Beck is clearly better than any of those guys, but he’s still in the “setup guy trade” tier for any team that could use a MLB-ready starter.

Missed the list: Jesus Rodriguez, Edgeleen Perez, Everson Peirera

Rodriguez was a star of the first few months, but has dropped off hard since. He hit .360 at Triple-A through June 1st but .259 since, both with no real power. The prospect rankers never believe din him, so for now we should treat the early season as a blip.

On the other hand, Perez was a darling of offseason prospect lists. That was in part due to the weakness of the system, but also because he looked like a promising catcher. The Yankees were aggressive when they sent him to Low-A as a 19 year-old, where he’s slugging .250.

Pereira keeps hitting and striking out at Triple-A. Maybe he needs a change of scenery or something, but he might just be a modern day Mitch Jones.

Scouting the stat-line: Parks Harber, Dylan Jasso, Griffin Herring

I can’t find a single scouting word on any of these guys, but they are all having great seasons on paper. Herring was a 6th round draft pick last year with a 1.64 ERA in the low minors. Jasso was an undrafted Mexican junior college player who has been one of the better and younger hitters at Double-A this year Harber was an undrafted college senior out of Georgia with a .900 OPS in the low minors. All are worth keeping an eye on this offseason.