Meet a Prospect: Dalton Lehnen

Moving on to the Yankees sixth round pick in the 2017 MLB First Year Players Draft and you guessed it. The Yankees took a pitcher. This time New York took a left-handed pitcher out of Augustana College in South Dakota named Dalton Lehnen. Let’s meet the junior left-handed pitcher. This is Meet a Prospect: The Dalton Lehnen Edition.

Lehnen stands at 6’2” and 195 lbs. and began his collegiate career at the University of Cincinnati before transferring to Augustana College in South Dakota. In 2017 Lehnen made 11 appearances, 10 of them as a starting pitcher, striking out 61 batters to just 20 walks in 52 innings while posting a 2.60 ERA. Those stats intrigued the Yankees enough to take Lehnen with the 182^nd overall pick in the draft.

Lehnen is not going to light up the radar gun some like some Yankees prospects as his fastball sits comfortably around 92 MPH, although Lehnen can touch 96 MPH when the southpaw needs to, with a raw breaking ball that can use some work.

Although Lehnen is a college pitcher he is still considered to be at least three-to-four years away from the Major Leagues on the optimistic side of things. It could take Lehnen all six years to make the show if he makes it at all. The good news for the Yankees and for Lehnen though is that this can all be accomplished with hard work and time and Lehnen has plenty of both if he signs.

Welcome to the organization, unofficially of course, and more importantly welcome to the family Dalton!