The New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates made a trade
before the August 1st trading deadline that sent RHP Ivan Nova to
Pittsburgh to help bolster their rotation for another playoff push while the
Yankees received two players to be named later. Those players have been named
and their names are Tito Polo and Stephen Tarpley. Let’s meet them. This is
Meet a Prospect: the Tito Polo and Stephen Tarpley Editions.
Let’s start with the pitching side of things and Stephen
Tarpley. Tarpley is now 23-years old and was originally drafted by the
Baltimore Orioles in the third round of the 2013 MLB First year Players Draft.
Tarpley was involved in the deal with the Pirates last year that sent Travis
Snider to the Orioles as an A-Ball pitcher. Tarpley is raw as you would imagine
even at 23 but his impressive strikeout numbers, 20.9% K/9 ratio, is enough to
take a waiver on him. Tarpley has a 94-95 MPH fastball that has sinking action
to it that creates a lot of ground balls as well as a curve ball and a slider.
Tarpley has also thrown a changeup that he seems to command well which could
make him a legitimate four-pitch pitcher or at least a solid three-pitch
pitcher that can pound the strike zone.
Polo was originally signed out of Columbia in 2012 by the
Pirates and has seen both Low-A and High-A Ball this season for Pittsburgh.
Polo is hitting a combined .289/.360/.451 with 16 home runs and 37 steals in
109 combined games for Pittsburgh while playing outfield for the organization.
That’s all the Yankees need is another outfielder, right? Especially one that
projects to possibly be a fourth outfielder at the MLB level but he does hit
for power, he should hit for a decent average and he runs very well which helps
him on the bases and in the outfield defensively. Hey, you never know. He could
blossom into something special. I don’t remember many knocking down the doors
to acquire Bernie Williams, recent Player of the Year Ben Gamel or many other’s
doors when they were in A-Ball either.
Both Tarpley and Polo are Rule 5 Draft eligible after this
season so either could be taken from the organization or protected. I can’t see
Polo being protected under any circumstances but Tarpley could be protected and
hidden in a bullpen for a season, at least through spring training anyway, so
this will be interesting to watch. Either way Cashman turned a struggling free
agent to be that couldn’t get MLB hitters out into two seemingly usable
prospects, that’s a win every day of the week.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)