Meet a Prospect: Zack Littell

The New York Yankees finalized their 40 man roster over the weekend designating players like Nick Rumbelow and Nathan Eovaldi for assignment, releasing players like Dustin Ackley and trading players like James Pazos to the Seattle Mariners for new prospects for us to meet like right-handed starter Zack Littell. Let’s meet him. This is Meet a Prospect: The Zack Littell Edition.

Littell is a 21-year old right-handed starting pitcher the Seattle Mariners drafted in the 11^th round back in the 2013 MLB First Year Players Draft. Littell was drafted out of High School back in 2013 and has progressed to A-Ball as recently as the 2016 season.

Baseball America listed Littell as the owner of the best curveball in the Mariners system at the time of the trade while MLB Pipeline had him ranked as the 14^th best prospect in the Seattle farm system. MLB.com had Littell as the Mariners Prospect of the Year after taking a big step in two Class-A Ball affiliates this season.

Littell owns a low-90’s MPH fastball and as previously stated he has a great curveball to go with it. Littell is also developing a changeup that he hopes to keep batters off-balance with. Not a bad pickup at all for a left-handed reliever with little MLB experience and a marginal stat line in a small sample size, huh?

Littell posted a combined 13-6 record with a 2.66 ERA in 28 games, 27 of them starts, in two stops in Class-A Ball in 2016 striking out 156 batters in 165.2 innings. Just another arm that could potentially reach the Major Leagues in a season or three for New York. These are never bad to have, especially for a pitcher like James Pazos who posted pitched well in stretches in 2015 and 2016 but could easily be replaced in the “Circle of Trust.”

Littell will begin his Yankees career down in Low-A Ball with the Tampa Yankees. Welcome to the family.