Yankees prospects: Arizona Fall League update

For the first time in several years, the Yankees are actually still playing baseball after the Arizona Fall League has started. Back in August, they announced their preliminary AFL roster with plans to send Thairo Estrada, Estevan Florial, Chris Gittens, Kyle Holder, Justus Sheffield, and Dillon Tate to Arizona. Things didn’t quite work out that way. For whatever reason, Gittens and Tate were both removed from the roster before play started without an explanation. Hopefully they aren’t dealing with any injuries.

The AFL kicked off on October 10th, so there isn’t too much to report just yet, but we want to make sure that the Yankees’ prospects aren’t forgotten. We won’t provide daily updates like we do during the regular season, but we’ll try to check back in every few weeks.

Hitters

With Gittens off the roster, the Yankees decided to send Billy McKinney to Arizona in his place. He’s off to an interesting start. Through 16 at-bats, McKinney has four hits, and they’ve all been extra-base hits. He has two doubles, a triple, and a home run so far. McKinney leads the Scottsdale Scorpions with 10 RBI over his first four games.

Thairo Estrada has also plated a few runs through his first five AFL games. He’s batting .381/.409/.476 with eight hits and 4 RBI in 21 at-bats. Estrada has five strikeouts and one stolen base. Estevan Florial has seven hits and seven strikeouts through his first four games. He’s hitting .389/.389/.444 with one stolen base, as well. Second baseman Kyle Holder has only made it in to two games, and has two hits through seven at-bats.

Pitchers

Justus Sheffield and Albert Abreu have both been fantastic through their first two starts. Sheffield surrendered just one hit during his first outing (Check out the video of his first outing below). He is sporting a 1.93 ERA through 9.1 innings pitched, and has nine strikeouts.

Abreu, who was acquired during the Brian McCann trade, is also off to a great start He has given up just six hits and one run through ten innings. Abreu has also racked up eleven strikeouts and has walked just three batters.

Reliever Cody Carroll has a perfect 0.00 ERA through his first three innings. He has given up just one hit, struck out three batters, and has two walks. The same cannot be said for Andrew Schwaab. Although he has only made two appearances so far, one of them was a bad one. Schwaab has surrendered three runs through 1.1 innings, giving him an ugly 20.25 ERA.