Yankees prospects: Mason Williams promoted to Double-A Trenton

After getting off to a terrible start in 2013, Mason Williams has had a bit of a resurgent June and July for High-A Tampa. His 2012 season was cut short after a shoulder injury required season-ending surgery for the outfield prospect, which likely signaled that the team would have liked for him to stay in Tampa all season when coupled with the fact that he struggled to such a great degree early on in 2013.

Unfortunately, the injury bug the Yankees have faced this season did not stop at the big league level and the Double-A Trenton Thunder need someone to replace prospect outfielders Slade Heathcott and Tyler Austin, who are seemingly done for the season due to injury.

Looks like Mason Williams is going to be a Thunder

— Nick Peruffo (@nickperuffo) August 15, 2013

I think ideally the Yankees would have preferred Williams stay in Tampa all season but because if injuries, he is coming up for a run

— Matt Kardos ⚾ (@mattkardos) August 15, 2013

That's not exactly the ideal circumstances for promoting one of the top prospects in the system, but hopefully Williams can take advantage of the opportunity and show he belongs. If not for the shoulder injury and tremendous struggles, he'd likely be in Trenton by now anyway. Prior to the Florida State League All-Star Game, Williams had a .240/.326/.323 batting line with eight stolen bases and two home runs for the Yankees. Since the break, he's put up a very slightly improved .288/.328/.384 line with seven stolen bases and one home run.

August has been particularly unkind to Williams, easily his worst of the season so far with a .403 OPS in 12 games so far. He still has time to turn that around with only half the month being over. June and July were where Williams managed to show off his prospect sparkle with an .805 and .781 OPS, respectively. Coming into the season as one of the Yankees best prospects, he's going to need to show he can hit like that on a regular basis.

It's a bad break for Heathcott and Austin, who join Williams toward the top of every prospect list. Whatever black magic has gone on this season to spread injury to anything with a Yankee logo on it is real and it had no intention of being limited just to those who have already made their way to the Bronx.

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