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New York Daily News | Mike Mazzeo: James Kaprielian is officially getting Tommy John Surgery. After news broke out that he was weighing his options between surgery and rest/rehab, he finally made the difficult decision to go under the knife. Kaprielian was projected to blast through the minors and possibly even make the majors at some point this year, but this surgery will put him out of commission for all of this year and go into next year.
NJ.com | Brendan Kuty: ESPN’s Keith Law recently released his new top 50 prospects. You can see the full list is behind an ESPN Insider paywall, but the Yankees have three of their prospects making the cut. The three Yankees making the cut are Gleyber Torres (#2), Blake Rutherford (#16), and Clint Frazier (#20). Frazier is the closest to the majors and is basically a significant injury/trade away, Torres might just be able get a September call-up, but Rutherford is still a while away as he’s likely to end his season in High-A Tampa.
NBC Sports | Craig Calcaterra: Remember thinking the Yankees couldn’t do worse than those ugly, overpriced No Runs DMC shirts and hats? Well the Yankees just said “hold my beer” to that thought. As part of a three-year (seriously) commemoration, the Yankees are going to be selling hats in honor of each of their 27 World Series wins. They will start with 2009 and work down to 1961 this year, followed by the next nine in 2018, and nine in 2019. Besides the silliness of this promotion, the hats are just plain awful. If you want to buy one, please don’t and just give me your money instead.
NJ.com | Brendan Kuty: Radley Haddad is a name you may not have heard of, but he’s going to be with the Yankees everyday this year. The former catching prospect officially agreed to join the team as their bullpen catcher about an hour before Opening Day. He’d been able to catch, but couldn’t hit at all, so the team approached him last year about eventually transitioning to a coach. Reality hit him fast, but even he saw his playing days were numbered and agreed. Jason Cohen interviewed Haddad back when he first signed with the organization.