Chase Hampton exploded onto the scene in the Yankees‘ organization last year, as the right-hander struck out over 33% of batters faced between High-A and Double-A. Drafted in the sixth round of the 2022 MLB Draft, Hampton was not viewed as the kind of pitcher who would rank near the top of any organization’s prospect list, but the development of his sweeping slider alongside improved strike-throwing abilities allowed him to have plenty of success at the professional level.
Entering the season, there was even some chatter that he could contend for the fifth starter job role when Gerrit Cole went down, but a right flexor strain would delay his return to the mound in Somerset until last week. Despite the layoff, the 22-year-old is excited to get back on the mound and compete, hoping that he can build off of this season and try to push into the Major League conversation in 2025.
Chase Hampton Reflects on Injury and Big League Camp With Yankees
This was supposed to be a big season for Chase Hampton, but unfortunately injuries cut into any hopes for him to get on the bump for the Yankees this season. It’s not unreasonable to say that had he stayed healthy, he could have factored into their rotation plans with guys like Marcus Stroman looking a bit winded and the fact that Luis Gil has yet to miss a start this season.
Invited to big-league camp ahead of Spring Training, the excitement about potentially fighting to make a name for himself in the organization might have been his undoing:
“I was juiced up going into Spring Training…trying to make a name for myself a little more, it kinda took me by surprise of the workload I was putting on my body and once I figured out I needed to take a stepback a little bit, it happened to kinda blow out a little bit there at the end.”
Chase Hampton mentioned that he felt as if he may have rushed the process of getting built up, and this isn’t a unique situation either. Gerrit Cole mentioned that he wondered if maybe he pushed things too hard early on, and in 2021 Clarke Schmidt nearly missed the entire season after an injury in Spring Training that occurred while he was ramping up a little too aggressively.
Speaking of the reigning AL Cy Young winner, Chase Hampton got to spend some time following Gerrit Cole around during Spring Training, and I asked him about his experience shadowing the ace of the Yankees.
“It took me some time, he’s a previous Cy Young Award winner and you don’t want to be the guy that’s alaywas asking the question so I always stuck around like a fly on the wall. Once he started noticing I started asking simple questions and we got more complex here and there. The last couple weeks I was there we had some pretty good conversations.
When Gerrit Cole was on the IL there was plenty of footage of him in the dugout trying to provide advice where he could to various pitchers on the staff. His effect on a young pitcher like Luis Gil was noticeable, and he had taken Clarke Schmidt under his wing last year as he had some similarities in their mentality and competitiveness. Like the organization, Cole is very in tune with the data and analytics on the pitching side of the ball, and it’s allowed him and Matt Blake to establish a strong culture there.
From an organization-wide standpoint, those data-based pillars are still there, and the Yankees were one of the first teams on the sweeper revolution that took over baseball in 2022. One of the pitchers who benefitted from it was Chase Hampton, who threw more of a gyro slider in college and worked on the pitch with the Yankees.
“First year drafted I had a gyro type of slider, it not very good and then in the offseason they sent me home and said ‘Hey we want you to throw this pitch, work on it, get a feel for it’ and then I came into Spring Training and it was good. It felt comfortable out of the hand and ever since then it’s stuck with me”
Chase Hampton has a plus fastball and curveball, but adding the sweeper gave him a weapon he could turn to against right-handed batters to put them away. Not much has changed there, he’s still a fastball-curveball-sweeper-cutter pitcher, but he has tried to get a changeup involved. The struggles to develop a consistent one make sense given that most of his pitches move to the glove-side, so the feel for pronation isn’t exactly there, but he did say he would love to have Luis Gil’s changeup if he could add a pitch from anyone currently on the Yankees.
It wasn’t the season that Chase Hampton was hoping for. He won’t get the chance to throw himself into the Major League conversation in 2024, and he definitely won’t build on the 106.2 innings he threw last year, but that doesn’t mean this can’t be a learning experience for him. Whether it’s what he was able to pick up from Gerrit Cole in Spring Training or how he’ll attack his ramp-up moving forward, the injury he suffered could be a building block for him moving forward.
He’s still considered by many to be the top pitcher in the Yankees’ farm system, and he’s not too far away from the Major Leagues either. All it takes is a strong finish to the 2024 season for him to be in consideration for a promotion to Triple-A in 2025. Ben Rice was in Single-A to open the 2023 season and was on the Major League team before the All-Star Break, and Luis Gil went from throwing under 10 innings last year to the best pitcher on the team this year.
The Yankees have shown a willingness to move guys up aggressively if they believe in them, and while it doesn’t always pan out, they’ve gotten some serious value from their farm system this year. Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Clarke Schmidt, and Luis Gil have been remarkable, with Ben Rice showing flashes on occassion in the box. If he puts up the numbers and the stuff is there, Chase Hampton will get a shot to shine, and he could put a strange 2024 season behind him for good.