The New York Yankees called up No. 1 Prospect Anthony Volpe to take over the starting shortstop job, sending Oswald Peraza back to Triple-A Scranton to continue refining his talents. Peraza will likely be called up at some point, but his main goal is to continue ironing out offensive deficiencies, notably an elevated strikeout and chase rate.
The team’s top prospects continue to shine, but one former expected star has experienced a wild fall from grace. Estevan Florial, who is currently 25 years old and struggled during spring training, played just one game with the Yankees before being designated for assignment.
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The Yankees simply couldn’t hold onto Estevan Florial any longer:
Florial didn’t have any minor league options left, so the Yankees had to cut bait and walk away from one of their most exciting prospects over the last decade. Considered a five-tool player at the peak of his hype, Florial couldn’t improve in the batter’s box, striking out 37.1% of the time across 35 plate appearances with the Bombers last year.
In Triple-A, he hosted a 30.4% strikeout rate, which indicated he was going to struggle at the next level. He did still hit .283 with a .368 OBP across 101 games with Scranton in 2022. He contributed 15 homers, 46 RBIs, and an impressive 39 stolen bases.
Unfortunately, he was unable to get anything going during spring training, hitting .167 with a .286 OBP, tallying one homer, eight RBIs, and five stolen bases across 42 at-bats. It is disappointing to see Estevan fall by the wayside, despite having plenty of talent to compete at the MLB level. Having passed through waivers unclaimed, the Yankees outrighted him to their Triple-A squad, where he will continue to develop his game and hopefully work out some of the kinks in his armor.