For the first time in a long, long time the New York Yankees
have a very strong and an extremely deep farm system. As a self-professed
prospect humper, trademark pending, nothing more makes me excited than to watch
players like Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez get drafted or signed before working
their way to the Major Leagues and succeeding. Now that this crop of Yankees
Baby Bombers are up and dominating the league at a high level it’s time to
focus on the next wave of Baby Bombers. Now normally I focus on players in
Double-A or Triple-A but I am going to dive deep into the Yankees farm system
for this one and give you another Baby Bomber to watch, Freicer Perez.
With the trade of James Kaprielian and with what could be the
imminent promotion of Chance Adams the Yankees will need a new wave of
reinforcements on the pitching side of things. Justus Sheffield is great,
Domingo Acevedo can throw 103 MPH fastballs, Albert Abreu, Dillon Tate and
Jorge Guzman look to have found and harnessed their potential but what about
Freicer Perez? Truth be told Perez may be the best of the bunch when the dust
settles and all is said and done and that is a scary, scary thought for
opposing batters in the league.
Perez was signed for a mere $10,000 back in 2014, you know…
the year the Yankees spent $17 million on international free agents, and has
far exceeded any expectations that anyone inside the organization could have
given him. Perez started in the Dominican Summer League and was quickly moved
up to the New York-Penn League with the Staten Island Yankees in 2016 and in
both stops has dominated minor league hitting. Perez, still a teenager
mind-you, has his flaws and his biggest issue is that he gives up a lot of
hits, almost one hit per inning pitched in both 2015 and 2016 to be exact, but the
right-hander has thoroughly improved in 2017 while with the Low-A Charleston
Riverdogs. While Perez still gives up a lot of hits, he has given up 91 hits in
his first 112.2 innings pitched this season, you can see an improvement in his
22 starts.
Perez has learned how to repeat his delivery and mix his pitches
very well and has become more of a pitcher here in 2017 and less of a hard
thrower. At the time of this writing Perez was sporting a 2.88 ERA, a WHIP of
1.15, a batting average against of .220 and a staggering 107:39
strikeout-to-walk ratio. Perez throws a fastball, curveball, changeup and a
slider and all four pitches have seen upticks in velocity the older the
right-hander has gotten. Perez can already reach triple digits on his fastball
which has garnered comparisons to another Yankees prospect and All-Star, Dellin
Betances.
Imagine if Dellin had been able to figure it out as a
starter. Imagine that strikeout potential and power as a starter instead of for
100 innings a season in the bullpen. That’s what the Yankees could be getting
with Perez if he develops the way every scout thinks that he will. Perez has
better command and a better feel for pitching and for his pitches at Betances’
age though which leads many scouts to believe that Perez will stick as a
starting pitcher, which is exciting.
Perez is just 21-years old and has not pitched above A-Ball
in his career so an aggressive ETA for the right-hander is the 2019 season in
my opinion, which is okay. Perez could conceivably start next season in
Double-A and end up in Triple-A by the end of the 2018 season if all goes well.
It may come sooner, the Yankees have shown an ability and a willingness to be aggressive
with starters when they have to. See Luis Severino. This time next year though
Perez may be the Yankees top pitching prospect in the system, or the best
prospect period. His upside is that high and his talent is that immense.
Imagine a rotation with Luis Severino, Chance Adams, a
healthy Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray and a pitcher who could be dominant like
Dellin Betances over the course of six-or-seven innings at a time. That’s scary
and borderline unfair. No, that’s greedy and I absolutely love it.
