Keith Law’s Top 10 Yankees Prospects: Gleyber Torres and Blake Rutherford lead the way

ESPN’s Keith Law has released his Top 10 Yankees prospects list, and Gleyber Torres is still out in front of everyone. That’s not at all surprising, since Torres is routinely named as one of the best prospects in all of baseball. Law ranks outfielder Blake Rutherford, the Yankees’ first round pick from last year, at second in the organization.

Prospects 1-6 (Torres, Rutherford, Clint Frazier, James Kaprielian, Aaron Judge, and Justus Sheffield) all appear in Law’s Top 100 for all of baseball. Having more than half of your team’s top prospects in the top 100 anywhere is a great accomplishment for the Yankees, who had one of the worst farm systems not very long ago.

With Jorge Mateo and Tyler Wade coming in at 7th and 8th on the list, respectively, the Yankees have three shortstops in their top 10. With Didi Gregorius having a very good year at the MLB level in 2016, this provides the team a lot of insurance. It wasn’t that long ago when finding the next shortstop to replace Derek Jeter was an impossible task. Now, the options are nearly limitless. It goes to show how far everything has coming in such a short time.

Chance Adams and Miguel Andujar round out Law’s Top 10. There is a great positional balance within the Yankees’ Top 10, with infielders, outfielders, and pitchers. They aren’t particularly weak in any one area.

Law discussed Mateo at length, saying that his lack of quality contact hasn’t been able to catch up to his 80-grade speed. Law isn’t sure whether or not that speed will be able to make up for the discipline Mateo lacks at the plate, and even makes an argument that you could place Wade above him on the list. Mateo gets the benefit of the doubt because of his reputation, but it seems like that may be changing pretty rapidly.

Another interesting tidbit from Law is that he makes a quick comparison between Chance Adams and David Robertson. Law says he could make the majors as soon as this season with three pitches and a plus curveball, but he could also end up being a Robertson-like reliever if his size doesn’t hold up in the rotation. That’s not a bad way to go, really. He also mentions that Andujar has the potential to be an everyday player at the big league level.

As for the guys who didn’t make it, Albert Abreu, Dustin Fowler, Ian Clarkin, Dillon Tate, and Domingo Acevedo were 11-15 on Law’s list. Drew Finley, Wilkerman Garcia, Esteban Florial, Kyle Holder, and Freicer Perez round out the top 20. There are plenty more details in the write-up, but keep in mind that it’s ESPN Insider-only.

Law predicts that Judge will get the bulk of playing time in right field this season, and that only bullpen spots will be available for other prospects to potentially make the big league club this season. For what it’s worth, he talks about Adams, Dietrich Enns, and Domingo German here.

Do you agree with Law’s rankings? Do you feel like anyone was ranked too harshly? Let us know in the comments.