Yankees Prospects: Whatever happened to Luke Murton, Eduardo Sosa, Austin Krum

Remember Luke Murton? No, probably not. Well, he has been a first baseman in the organization since 2009, though he was first drafted by the Yankees in 2007, and hit .249/.327/.464 with 25 home runs in 2012 as a 26-year-old in Double-A. When Mark Teixeira was injured during spring training and the organization was dangerously close to relying on Juan Rivera, at no point was Murton considered a potential replacement. That seemed pretty telling. He was optioned to minor league camp in early March, only a few days after Teixeira first suffered his injury.

Murton was given his first taste of Triple-A this season, where he hit a measly .188/.241/.213 in 23 games before he played his last game on June 2. He was optioned down to Staten Island as a way to clear a roster spot, but remained in Scranton, but then he never returned to action. It turned out that he left the organization only a few days later to join the Sioux City Explorers in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball to replace a different first baseman, Wally Backman Jr. He hit .274/.373/.40 in 18 games through June 30 and is apparently the younger brother of Japanese baseball legend, Matt Murton.

I had never heard of Eduardo Sosa, until spring training, when he made a cameo appearance as a defensive replacement in late March. He was signed as an international free agent from Venezuela back in 2007 and made it to High-A as a 22-year-old. He hit .204/.278/.232 in 43 games, but, as of June 19, disappeared from the record books. I did some investigating and found out he had been released and has yet to return to action somewhere else.

Austin Krum is another Yankee prospect you've never heard of and he hasn't been one for two seasons now. Drafted in the ninth round of the 2007 draft, Krum made it to Triple-A for the first time as a 25-year-old outfielder in 2011, but hit only 246/.328/.308 in 64 games. Josh Norris named him as one of the top 10 players for Double-A Trenton, saying he deserved to be in Scranton, but could also be easily replaced by a number of other options. The Yankees organization must have agreed because he was, unsurprisingly, released before the 2012 season, something he was obviously unhappy about. He ended up sitting out of baseball for the season and very well might be done with professional baseball.

He reappeared in 2013 as a member of the Bridgeport Bluefish of the independent Atlantic League and has hit .330/.378/.428 in 70 games. He plays alongside such MLB notables as Adam Greenberg, the same Adam Greenberg who was made slightly famous after getting hit in the head in his first major league at-bat, Alex Hinshaw and ex-Yankees prospect Kanekoa Texeira. Krum was recently named the Atlantic League Player of the Day after going 4–4 on the Fourth of July.

Something I came across during the investigation was that Krum was arrested in 2008, then a member of the Staten Island Yankees, for refusing to leave a restaurant. Fun times!

Now it looks like the only members of the 2007 draft class (despite Murton not signing then) are Austin Romine, Carmen Angelini, and Pat Venditte, though he's gone missing as well. The only two international free agent signings fron 2007 that are left in the organization are Ali Castillo, a shortstop in Double-A Trenton, and Jose Ramirez.