The New York Yankees opened with Ben Hess and Bryce Cunningham on the first night of the 2024 MLB Draft, and the wave of new arms didn’t end yesterday. With Rounds 3-10 going down yesterday, the Yankees added five more arms but finally drafted some bats as well, and there’s plenty to talk about regarding these picks. We saw more high-upside players, including a pitcher who can hit 102 MPH on the radar and a hitter who has exceeded an exit velocity of 118 MPH.
We’ll break down each pick and go through why the Yankees were drawn to them, as today marks the third and final day of the draft.
Yankees’ Third-Round Pick (No. 89): Thatcher Hurd
2024 NCAA Stats: 6.55 ERA | 44 IP | 26.3 K% | 10.8% BB% | 0.8 HR/9 | 4.17 xFIP
When it comes to what makes for an enticing prospect, your stuff and projectability matter a lot more than your results in college, which is why ERA is often misleading. Finesse pitching works a lot better at the college level than it does at the professional level, whereas pitchers like Thatcher Hurd with excellent stuff and poor command often don’t have the proper resources to fix those issues.
College coaches are trying to win games while Minor League coaches are trying to develop players, which isn’t a critique of how college baseball is, just an important distinction to make. Thatcher Hurd has an excellent repertoire including his four-seam fastball which generates a ton of vertical ride with good velocity, sitting in the mid-90s. That powerful fastball can get swings and misses at a high rate.
His slider has two-plane movement, generating a lot of drop and over seven inches of horizontal sweep, but as with his fastball, Hurd struggles to execute consistently, resulting in walks and misses in-zone. Usually, the Yankees take guys with excellent command and then try to improve their stuff in the earlier rounds, but they flipped the switch and went for guys who have excellent stuff but need to improve their mechanics and command.
Drew Thorpe and Brendan Beck come to mind when you think of command-first pitchers who they selected with one of their first two picks. Thatcher Hurd is one of many pitchers the Yankees selected early in the draft who fit this profile, and it could come with massive rewards if they’re able to unlock their potential. His stuff isn’t just good, it’s on par with some of the top pitchers in the sport.
Yankees’ Fourth-Round Pick (No. 119): Gage Ziehl
2024 NCAA Stats: 3.87 ERA | 100 IP | 21.1 K% | 6.6 BB% | 1.0 HR/9 | 4.16 xFIP
Gage Ziehl is more of a strong command pitcher with a deep arsenal, averaging 93 MPH on the four-seamer with good vertical life. His slider is his money pitch, picking up a ton of whiffs on it with good two-plane movement, and he also boasts a cutter and changeup to go alongside it. This pick fits the Yankees’ usual early-round philosophies well, selecting a college arm who can locate everything generally well but needs to sharpen up his repertoire.
A New York native, Ziehl could be a faster riser if he’s able to improve the secondary stuff as I do believe he has a good feel for the fastball-slider combination with enough movement and velocity to handle himself at the next level. He could be one of the arms who begin their full-season action at High-A with the Hudson Valley Renegades, but with that command, you are getting a less powerful arm.
Ben Hess, Bryce Cunningham, and Thatcher Hurd are all definitely better at generating velocity and ride on their primary fastballs, but they’re also all lottery ticket prospects as well. Built up to 100 innings this past season, Ziehl has the workload necessary to immediately acclimate to pro ball as well, and he’s a name to keep tabs on if the stuff begins to match the pitchability and volume.
Yankees’ Fifth-Round Pick (No. 152): Greysen Carter
2024 NCAA Stats: 6.58 ERA | 39.2 IP | 20.2 K% | 16.0 BB% | 0.9HR/9 | 5.03 xFIP
Greysen Carter has a reliever profile and I highly doubt he sticks the landing as a starter in the pros, but good lord is his fastball electric. An incredible story of a pitcher who overcame a lot in his personal life including being cut by Vanderbilt, the right-hander has hit over 102 MPH on the radar gun. He doesn’t have the most efficient movement profile and the Yankees will have to help him adjust that to make his fastball dominant.
I don’t know if he actually has a secondary he can go to reliably either, his changeup has more vertical ride than his fastball somehow and the curveball often just spins out of control. The upside here is enormous (as is he!) and selecting someone with that much punch to their fastball is always going to come with a pretty lofty ceiling. Refining movement and command will be key, but I think you can live with being wild if he finds a reliable secondary.
We’ll see if the Yankees have him start or come out of the bullpen next season, but the stuff is certainly electric and I could totally see him becoming a high-leverage reliever for a championship contender. Greysen Carter is a name to remember, and every Yankees fan should have their eyes on him next season.
Yankees’ Sixth-Round Pick (No. 182): Griffin Herring
2024 NCAA Stats: 1.79 ERA | 50.1 IP | 32.7 K% | 6.5 BB% | 2.63 xFIP
Another pick means another pitcher, but this time the Yankees are going with a southpaw in Griffin Herring. The left-hander has a fastball with good vertical life and plenty of extension, but it sits at just 91.6 MPH. Developing velocity will be an important part of his development, as if he can get it to around 93 MPH that could be the difference between a starter or reliever at the next level.
His slider is wicked, generating sharp movement down and in to righties and away from lefties, but he’ll have to work on adding a reliable third pitch. He struck out over 30% of batters faced and has by far the best results of any pitcher drafted, but this is a pick that doesn’t come with the upside or expectations of the guys ahead of him. I anticipate that Herring could get a chance to start, but will ultimately settle for a reliever role unless he finds that third pitch.
The Yankees are excellent at pitch design though, so at the very least, he’s in a good spot to develop what he currently lacks.
Yankees’ Seventh-Round Pick (No. 211): Wyatt Parliament
2024 NCAA Stats: 7.63 ERA | 43.2 IP | 31.2 K% | 6.9 BB% | 3.40 xFIP
Wyatt Parliament was selected out of Virginia Tech, but he’s a native New Yorker who also pitched for Rutgers in 2022 and 2023. The right-hander did not have much success in college but he missed bats at a high rate and that definitely caught the attention of the Yankees. It’s a fastball-slider combination that I really like as he throws from a lower arm slot while averaging 93 MPH and topping out at 97.
It’s got 17 inches of ride and 13.6 inches of run, being the kind of fastball that’s tough on righties and tails away to lefties, coming from a unique release height. With a 32.6% Whiff Rate, he ranked in the 96th Percentile for fastballs, and his slider is nothing to scoff at. It’s a true gyro slider with good vertical drop and over five inches of sweep, getting a lot of chases and called strikes on that pitch.
The 20-year-old has some exciting stuff and he’s one of my favorite picks they made yesterday, because while I have my questions about his projectability as a starter, being a whiff machine with plus stuff will always stand out to me. He’s young with good size and the Yankees have hit some home runs in the middle rounds of the draft consistently on the pitching side.
Another arm that needs plenty of work, the Yankees are betting on Sam Briend to turn these high-upside arms into quality pros, and that’s a bet I’d take any time.
Yankees’ Eighth-Round Pick (No. 241): Tyler Wilson
2024 NCAA Stats: .378 AVG | .441 OBP | .691 SLG% | 12.9 K% | 9.1 BB%
The New York Yankees actually did it, they selected a position player in the 2024 MLB Draft, ending their streak of seven-straight college pitchers. Tyler Wilson is a fascinating pick, as he went to Hamilton High School (where Brock Selvidge was selected from) and attended GCU in Arizona as well, but he was actually born in Taiwan. Kai-Wei Teng is the only Taiwan-born player on a 40-man roster right now, and I’m hoping Wilson can add to that list in the future.
Tyler Wilson is a very smart hitter, he has a great feel for the strike zone, rarely expanding and going after the pitches he wants while having a very efficient swing. As a switch-hitting first baseman, he has the game power and solid contact rates, but the raw power isn’t great and that creates some questions about how it’ll translate to the pro level. Still, he generates a ton of backspin on his swing, and that allows for better ball flight off the bat, explaining his high HR total (17).
We’ll see if the Yankees are able to help him unlock some more power or improve on the contact rates, but he’s clearly got an advanced approach that gives me some optimism that he’ll absorb information well. When you make good swing decisions and design your swing around maximizing ball flight, that shows me an effort to build a modern approach, and the Yankees have some very smart people on the Minor League side who will work tirelessly to provide him the information he needs to succeed.
He could also play some outfield if needed, and we’ll see how the Yankees choose to deploy him when he kicks off his pro career.
Yankees’ Ninth-Round Pick (No. 271): Tanner Bauman
2024 NCAA Stats: 4.57 ERA | 41.1IP | 24.7 K% | 8.4 BB% | N/A xFIP
Tanner Bauman is a soft-tossing left-hander who relied more on his command to get by in college, but he did miss bats at a solid clip and has some interesting secondaries. His lower-slot release point makes the 89-91 MPH fastball play up in the zone, but the big pitch here is his impressive sweeping slider. There’s a lot of sharp horizontal movement, and perhaps the Yankees see a way to improve his velocity and get the secondaries more involved.
When you think of a soft-tossing lefty who misses bats, Nestor Cortes is the first pitcher that comes to mind, and he found “it” by developing his secondaries. When he added his cutter he took off, and perhaps the Yankees are able to either help him design a new offering or emphasize the sweeper or changeup he already possesses.
Standing at 6’5, the height and frame would suggest he could add some velocity under the right development, and the Yankees have always done a great job getting guys to throw even harder. If he’s able to get that fastball up a tick or two, maybe he can stick in the pros, but we’re in the ninth round so the average outcome is most definitely not a big leaguer. I already said this once but it’s worth repeating; when Sam Briend is your director of pitching, you’re in safe hands.
Yankees’ Tenth-Round Pick (No. 301): Joe Delossantos
2024 NCAA Stats: .330 AVG | .431 OBP | .584 SLG% | 20.4K% | 13.9 BB%
Born in Queens, Joe Delossantos is a New York native with a powerful swing that results in exit velocities that would make anybody turn their head. Now before I list off some of these exit velocity numbers, it should be noted that these are with metal bats which means in a wooden bat environment he would probably not be able to hit the ball nearly as hard. Still, maxing out at 118.6 MPH and averaging 93.7 MPH is absolutely ridiculous, giving him some of the best raw power in all of college.
He pulls the ball a ton in the air but struggles with swing decisions and contact rates, which are things the Yankees do traditionally develop pretty well. A 23-year-old outfielder, he’s older than most of his college competition, but his power translated very well in the Cape Cod League last summer, where he hit eight home runs with a 1.056 OPS in what is a wood bat league.
I love the idea here; select someone with huge power tools and hope that you can help improve the finer skills in his plate discipline and contact rates. It’s another upside pick, but we’ve seen the Yankees swing at older college bats and have some success, with Ben Rice being a 12th-round selection in 2021 before becoming a hot-button prospect who is looking strong in his limited MLB experience.