Thursday, July 28, 2016

Meet a Prospect: Billy McKinney


The New York Yankees traded former closer Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs for a package of players and prospects including the Cubs top prospects Gleyber Torres, former Yankee and current Cubs reliever Adam Warren, outfielder Rashad Crawford and the prospect we will meet today, Billy McKinney. If McKinney’s name sounds familiar it is because he is a former first round pick in the 2013 MLB First Year Players Draft and was included in another big trade recently, the trade that sent Jeff Samardzija to the Oakland Athletics. Let’s meet him. This is Meet a Prospect: The Billy McKinney Edition.

Billy McKinney was drafted in the first round of the 2013 MLB First Year Players Draft by the Oakland Athletics as an outfielder. Like we touched on earlier McKinney was included in the Jeff Samardzija for Addison Russell swap between the A’s and the Chicago Cubs and was ranked as Baseball Prospectus’s 74th best prospect prior to the start of the 2016 season.

McKinney has spent the entire season in Double-A for Chicago and was posting a .252/.355/.322 triple slash with 31 RBI in 88 games at the time of the trade. These stats are down from his 2015 stat line that saw him post a .300/.371.454 slash with 64 RBI between High-A and Double-A so hopefully he can turn things around while wearing pinstripes.

McKinney has a lot of Brett Gardner in him but he may grow into more of a corner outfielder than the center fielder that he is today. His left-handed swing is quick and he has great hand-eye coordination and an even better batters eye which should translate into a lot of walks in his career. He will hit for contact but the power may never come, and that’s okay as long as he hits for extra bases every once in a while.


So welcome to the club Billy and more importantly, welcome to the family. Make us proud, enjoy your stay and we’ll see you in the Bronx before you know it. 

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)