Arizona Fall League Update: Yankees pitchers

The regular baseball season is over, but there are still a handful of Yankees prospects playing in the Arizona Fall League. TV coverage on these games is pretty much non-existent, but baseball is baseball! Here’s an update on how the Yankees pitchers are doing in the AFL so far.

Dillon Tate
Part of the reason that the Yankees were able to acquire Tate in exchange for Carlos Beltran is because the former 2015 first-round pick struggled through Low-A during the first half of the season. After the minor-league season ended, Tate was sent to the AFL and his first few appearances were encouraging. There was some concern that his velocity was down this year, but he touched 97 MPH during one of his first outings, and sat between 94-96 MPH.

The bad news is that Tate has mysteriously disappeared from the Scorpions’ roster. This happened just days after he was named to the AFL’s Fall Star Game roster. We may never find out what happened, but some sort of injury seems like the best guess (he previously missed time with a hamstring injury during the 2016 season). The timing of this stinks, as Tate was pitching well prior to being removed from the roster. Through 9.1 IP, Tate had 10.61 K/9, 0.96 BB/9, 1.93 HR/9 (oops), and a 3.86 ERA. Hopefully we will receive some kind of update on him soon.

Nestor Cortes
Cortes made his way from Low-A to Triple-A throughout the course of the season, and ended up being a late edition to the AFL roster as well. The Yankees originally had four pitchers on the Scorpions’ roster, not including Cortes, but the Yankees were allowed to add Cortes after another pitcher (not Tate) went down with an injury. He has only made three appearances out of the bullpen so far, and small sample size is not working in his favor. Through 3 IP, Cortes has a 12.00 ERA, 12.00 BB/9, and 15.00 K/9. That amounts to five hits, four walks, and four earned runs.

J.P. Feyereisen
After spending half of his season with the Indians’ Double-A affiliate, Feyereisen found his way to the Yankees as part of the Andrew Miller trade. So far he has 10 strikeouts through 9 IP. He has walked six batters and has given up 11 hits, leaving him with a 4.00 ERA.

James Kaprielian
The Yankees’ 2015 first-round draft pick unfortunately had to spend the majority of the 2016 season on the disabled list with an elbow injury. After the Yankees announced that Kaprielian had been named to the AFL, he was removed from the roster, and then re-added. It was worrisome at the time, but happily wasn’t an indication that anything was wrong with Kaprielian. During his first appearance, he notched six strikeouts over three innings. Over four starts, Kaprielian currently has a 4.73 ERA with 10.13 K/9. Considering how much time he missed with the elbow injury, Kaprielian has said that his stats aren’t his main focus right now. His main concern is testing his arm and making sure that he stays healthy.

Brody Koerner
Koerner is the other starting pitcher that the Yankees have on the AFL roster, though his first few appearances were out of the bullpen. So far, Koerner has had mixed results. Through 11 IP, he has a 8.18 ERA, and he has surrendered 10 earned runs off of 14 hits. He has also walked seven batters and has nine strikeouts. Interestingly, nine of those runs scored during the two relief appearances that he made before a rotation spot opened up. Koerner has only given up one run over his last two starts.

Check back tomorrow for an update on the hitters that the Yankees sent to the AFL.