Ryan Garcia
Yesterday’s 6-2 win over the Pirates came with some interesting pitching performances, as Ryan Yarbrough was the Yankees’ starter in his first Grapefruit League outing.
Ben Hess, the Yankees’ 2024 first-round pick, would pitch three innings in relief later in the contest, and both flashed some pitches I was excited to discuss.
While this is a day late, we’re breaking down the club’s presumed no. 6 starter alongside our no. 5 ranked prospect in the system with an eye on new traits or nuggets to keep an eye on.
I was impressed with Hess especially, but I also spotted some differences in Yarbrough’s movement plot compared to 2025, and we’re breaking it all down here.
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Ben Hess Shows Off Exciting Pitch Mix in Spring Debut
Since we did not know the Yankees’ traveling squad on the pitching side besides Ryan Yarbrough, the sight of Ben Hess on the mound was a pleasant surprise.
The right-hander tossed three strong innings where he struck out five batters, walked two, hit one, and allowed one run as he mixed in five different pitches in the outing.
He picked up 11 whiffs on 23 swings (48%) which was highly impressive, topping out at 95 MPH and showing a nasty amount of movement on all of his pitches.
Ben Hess gets a ridiculous amount of vertical movement on his four-seamer despite his low arm angle, there aren’t a lot of comps in terms of release height, arm angle, and IVB.
This is on top of throwing a curveball with tons of movement and a big sweeper with almost two feet of lateral movement, and the feel for the changeup is something I’ll monitor all year.
By getting downhill well and also spinning the ball as well as he does, Hess is in a position to have a serious breakout if the strike-throwing abilities get better.
That’s one of my big gripes with Hess; he had a ~64% Strike% last season and this start showed some of that erratic command that he’ll need to clean up in order to get the most out of his mix.
Another area where the right-hander needs improvement is with the addition of a pitch that can bridge in-between the canyon of horizontal movement between his arm-side and glove-side pitches.
There’s nothing in Ben Hess’ mix that has 8 inches or less of horizontal movement in either direction, he needs to find something like a cutter that doesn’t need to have great shape but just sits in-between everything he throws.
With how well he spins the ball away from righties I would believe this isn’t an impossible task for him, and I don’t think this has to be a particularly dominant pitch.
If he wants to ditch the sinker for a mediocre cutter that works for me, it’ll give him that bridge pitch that he needs and give him the ability to better deceive hitters at the plate.
Overall, I walked away very happy with the way that Ben Hess looked, he was one of the ~10 best pitchers in Minor League Baseball last year from a production standpoint and deserves some respect on his name.
Ryan Yarbrough Is Ready to Be the Yankees’ Emergency Starter Once Again
The old dog had some new tricks this afternoon, having about three more inches of ride on his cutter while throwing a firmer sweeper with less lateral movement.
I don’t expect Ryan Yarbrough to come out firing this season, but I do hope to see some of the craftiness he showed prior to being injured on full display as either a starter or reliever.
He’s a crafty lefty who was able to compete well against a Pirates team throwing out Marcell Ozuna, Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds, and Ryan O’Hearn among other regulars.
If the pitch changes from today stick it’ll be an interesting sideshow to monitor because some more ride on that cutter could allow it to perform better with his strong changeup.
Prior to getting hurt Ryan Yarbrough was a league-average starting pitcher who was overperforming to have good results, could this potentially lead to a plus outcome as a reliever?
He’s funky and weird, and for a pitcher that tends to be a positive, but if not then he’s going to hopefully just provide competitive innings for a Yankees’ team that might need a lot of spot starts in 2026.
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