The New York Yankees are one of the more historic franchises when it comes to trading/signing the best players around the MLB, but lately, they have been growing from within.
With the emergence of Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, and others, they have begun to shift the narrative from great deals to even better home-development.
The New York Yankees need to help their youth grow:
The next wonder-kid on the list is Estevan Florial, an uber-athletic outfielder that is one of the more polarizing talents in the Yankees’ farm system. His abilities are off the charts, but at this point, it’s a matter of extracting them from the depth of his struggles.
Florial has struggled immensely with strikeouts and recognizing pitches in the minor leagues. In 2017, he struck out a hefty 148 times over 476 at-bats. In 2018, he struck out 92 times over 325 at-bats. That’s a tad over 28% of his at-bats. Now, the strikeouts are worrisome, but you can get away with a high-rate if you can hit for power. For comparison’s sake, Aaron Judge struck out nearly 37% of his at-bats last season. But, he launched 27 homers in the process.
Florial slashed .178/.294/.260 in the Arizona Fall League last year, recording no homers and two steals. Given the sample size was just 21-games we can give him the benefit of the doubt, but some analysts think he’s far from reaching his potential.