Yesterday the Yankees announced a pair of players who they gave NRIs for Spring Training, one of them being Jayvien Sandridge, a 25-year-old lefty who spent last year in the San Diego Padres’ organization. A hard-throwing reliever with a fastball that sits around 95-96 MPH and a unique breaking ball, he’s displayed plenty of upside in his time with the Orioles, Reds, and Padres.
In his first season with San Diego last year, Sandridge posted a 4.28 ERA with 95 strikeouts in 61 innings, spending the first half of the season in Double-A before moving up to the harsh conditions in Triple-A’s Pacific Coast League. The strikeouts are great, and the velocity is eye-popping, but the command has been bad, owning a career MiLB walk rate of 18.0%.
The Yankees have consistently honed in wild relievers, turning afterthoughts into high-leverage weapons for a World Series contender. With just a few tweaks Jayvien Sandridge could take some huge strides that potentially lead to him becoming a real weapon in the Yankees’ bullpen.
What Do the Yankees See in Jayvien Sandridge?
Jayvien Sandridge’s most-used weapon is his fastball, while Statcast distinguishes between his four-seamer and sinker, they share too many similarities for me to consider them different pitches. He relied on his fastball 58.2% of the time in Triple-A, with batters having a .438 wOBA and 7.6% Barrel%, which are a product of poor command and the ballpark the Padres’ Triple-A team plays at.
The El Paso Chihuahuas play in a ballpark with over 3,700 feet of elevation, which isn’t as much as Coors Field which exceeds 5,000 feet, but it is enough to impact a pitcher’s induced vertical break negatively. It doesn’t help that the PCL is full of ballparks that are hitter-friendly, resulting in a league ERA of 5.27. The average ERA at Southwestern University Park, which is where El Paso plays, was 5.91 last season, so there’s not much helping Sandridge in that regard.
What stands out about Jayvien Sandridge’s fastball is the extension he gets on it, releasing the ball closer to the plate than most which results in his perceived velocity being an MPH higher than his actual velocity. Pitchers who generate tons of extension are prone to struggle with command, meaning his command issues aren’t entirely a skill issue, and he was predisposed to them with his tall frame and long limbs.
The average FB velocity for an MLB reliever was 94.9 MPH in 2024, meaning that Jayvien Sandridge’s fastball velocity even when taking his extension into account is above-average instead of an outlier trait. Using a solid heater 60% of the time is also a recipe for disaster, and Sandridge’s slider is a unique enough offering to potentially become his primary offering.
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Jayvien Sandridge’s slider was one of the best in Triple-A last season, having a unique movement profile that could make it a devastating weapon in the big leagues. It averages over 41 inches of vertical drop, which is more than the average for a slider, and it also averages 0.1 inches of arm-side movement. Why is that important?
Sliders tend to have lateral movement, but it’s usually to the glove side, which for a lefty will result in that pitch moving into right-handed batters and away from left-handed batters. With 0.1 inches of arm-side movement, it’s capable of moving in both lateral directions, similar to how Ian Hamilton’s slambio is unique due to how it’s horizontal movement can vary in direction on a pitch-to-pitch basis.
The Yankees need to push this pitch as much as possible, as while Jayvien Sandridge won’t always get hitters to chase at it, the pitch is excellent at preventing damage contact and can play up his fastball. Drawing comparisons again to Ian Hamilton here, both pitchers lack a truly dominant fastball, but their breaking balls are so good and unique that they keep hitters from sitting back on or anticipating a hittable heater in the zone.
Used at a 31.1% clip, the Yankees can easily increase the usage of it by decreasing the usage of his fastball, but it’s not the only weapon I want them to emphasize in 2025.
A pitch can become less effective the more it gets used, but as a left-handed pitcher, there’s a clear advantage to using your changeup a good bit. Offspeed pitches such as changeups or splitters tend to do better against opposite-handed hitters, and most baseball players hit from the right-handed side, so why doesn’t Sandridge use his changeup more? It seems like a simple solution, but finding comfort in throwing a pitch in a big spot takes time and in-game experience.
It’s not as if the Padres are a lousy organization when it comes to pitching development either, their young pitchers are just exposed to one of the harshest run environments in pro ball. Jayvien Sandridge might find a better feel for his breaking pitches in the more typical climates of the northeast pitching in Scranton or the Bronx instead of El Paso or Reno.
Having a good slider would be enough to make a pitcher worth a non-roster invite, but having a good changeup as well takes things to a different level. It’s hard to dictate what a pitcher’s exact usage rate should look like given that pitching is more complicated than just what should work on paper, as a great game plan is nothing without proper execution on the mound.
A pitcher’s comfort level matters a lot too, if they don’t feel good throwing a certain pitch, telling them they’re wrong or that it doesn’t matter won’t exactly cause much growth. This is where having strong coaching is important, and that’s why the Yankees have been able to churn out so many excellent pitchers under Matt Blake.
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Perhaps the Yankees have Jayvien Sandridge throw each of his pitches based on the handedness, having the changeup as an exclusive weapon against right-handed batters and letting him rip sliders and fastballs against lefties. Command will always be an issue here, but with enough swings and misses, those walks will turn into stranded runners, and the team won’t see their odds of winning games affected much.
Entering his age-26 season, Sandridge is still young enough to take a significant leap in production on the mound, the tools needed to succeed are already there. His fastball isn’t a terrible pitch, but hitters see it too often and it isn’t unique enough to keep hitters off-balance. That’s where the Yankees can get his secondary usage up, as the downward movement of his sliders and changeups will make the heater upstairs all-too-difficult for some to catch up with.
The Yankees do a great job identifying talent, and Jayvien Sandridge has done a great job remaining persistent and staying the course, hopefully these two forces merge to form a productive power left-hander for years to come.