Yankees Top Prospects

by James Vlietstra

September 18, 2025

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A few weeks ago, MLB Pipeline updated the top prospects list. They included some of the recent draft picks as well as reshuffling players based on this year’s performance.

At the time of the list being released, there were four Yankees prospects in the Top 100. They were George Lombard Jr (25), Carlos LaGrange (81), Cam Schlittler (90), and Spencer Jones (91).

Since then, Schlittler has graduated, so will 31 other prospects. In my opinion, the Yankees potentially will have two more prospects crack the top 100 in 2026. Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz and Dax Kilby. ERC could eventually allow Yankees fans to forget Carlos Narvaez. Kilby performed well in his short cameo after he was drafted.

Position wise, the most numerous spot for the Yankees is right-handed pitchers with 11 prospects. Next is outfield with seven, closely followed by shortstop with six. Rounding out the list are left-handed pitchers, first basemen, and second basemen with four, two, and one, respectively.

Four of the top seven are first round picks. Overall, there’s another ten that were picked between rounds two through five. Eight more were drafted deeper in the draft. One was an undrafted free agent. And the remaining eight were international free agents.

At the trade deadline, the Yankees traded away a lot of their depth in the minor leagues. This resulted in a lot of turnover in their top prospects list. However, I believe that they are currently a top 8-10 farm system, with a lot of high quality players in the upper levels of the minors who will be ready to contribute as soon as next season.

Four of the prospects were taken in this year’s amateur draft. Another ten are eligible to be drafted in the Rule 5 draft, if not added to the 40-man roster. These are Spencer Jones (3), Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz (5), Chase Hampton (8), Henry LaLane (9), Brock Selvidge (10), Brendan Beck (11), Jace Avina (24), TJ Rumfield (25), Eric Reyzelman (26), and Harrison Cohen (30).

Also, Brennan Jones, who had an excellent season when healthy, will be a free agent and would need to be put on the roster if they want to keep him. A similar decision would have to be made with Jeimer Candelario, who is being paid $15M by the Reds to play in the Yankees system.

That is an unprecedented number of players that the Yankees may want to protect. The Yankees currently have 44 players on the 40-man roster, as Oswaldo Cabrera, Gerrit Cole, Clarke Schmidt, and Jake Cousins are all on the 60-day IL.

These are some of the players that they may not have returning next season, as they are free agents:Trent Grisham (could be offered the Qualifying Offer), Cody Bellinger (player option), Tim Hill (team option), Paul Goldschmidt, Amed Rosario, Devin Williams, Jonathon Loasiga, Austin Slater, Luke Weaver, Paul Blackburn, and Ryan Yarbrough.

Here are a few minor league players that are on the 40-man roster and under team control but could also be released without costing anything: JC Escarra, Ian Hamilton, Yerry De Los Santos, Alan Winans, Jake Bird, Scott Effross, Michael Arias, Jorbit Vivas, Brent Headrick, Jayvien Sandridge, and Braden Shewmake.

Here’s a couple of other bookkeeping notes for next season. DJ LeMahieu will still be getting paid $15M by the club. Anthony Rizzo will be off the books. Aaron Hicks’ nearly $10M will be off the books, however they will owe him a $1M buyout in 2026. Finally, Giancarlo Stanton will have $10M of his contract subsidized by the Marlins each of the next three seasons.