Obviously, Jasson Dominguez and Anthony Volpe are the talk of the New York Yankees’ minor league camp. However, a couple of arms are already turning heads with their talent, and are looking even better than last year.
According to the Yankees’ farm director Kevin Reese, they are keeping a close eye on the development of their arms as a whole. “I think that we always look for those top picks that show up and look like top picks,” he said. “But I think probably more so on the pitching side, we’ve had a lot of guys that were low level Draft picks or lower money signs internationally that have been able to make some big jumps and had some success.”
Reese noted, however, thay Ken Waldichuk and Hayden Wesneski stand out above the rest, at least in the early days of minor league camp. Both are 2019 draftees that had very good seasons in 2021, and both have heavy, mid-90s fastballs.
The Yankees definitely have some fireballers
“I think most people that saw Waldichuk last year would say, ‘Hey, he’s got a big fastball, the breaking ball is decent, he may need to develop a third pitch in order to be a starter,’” Reese said. “He showed one of the best changeups out here competing against our own hitters. But that was, for me, a wow moment. That’s what he needs to make that next step and he’s working on it and it looked like a really good pitch and a pitch that can help him attack right-handed hitters in the future.
About Wesneski, Reese stated that he “is a really good competitor whose velocity continues to trend up. He’s got like a five-pitch mix and I think that’s going to bode well.”
There is another surprise arm that the Yankees are closely monitoring: his name is Will Warren.
“Will Warren had some velo in college, but it continues to trend up, and he’s working on some secondary stuff,” Reese said. “We get the opportunity in these situations to talk to the hitters, ‘Hey, who’s the toughest guy you’ve faced so far?’ And that’s a name that continues to jump out.”