Three Yankees crack Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list

As the offseason stretches deeper into winter, we remain in prime prospect evaluation season. This year, it’s an especially unenviable task given that there was no minor league baseball played in 2020, and the experts were forced to use all other resources at their disposal to determine the best of the best. Many of these prospects only saw mere cups of coffee in the majors or unclear time spent at the dreaded Alternate Site and minor league complex, so scouting reports were more valuable than ever last year.

Baseball America released its annual top 100 prospects list on Monday, and three Baby Bombers were chosen among this group. It’s actually the same trio who made the list last year: Jasson Dominguez, Deivi García, and Clarke Schmidt — all very familiar names to Yankees prospect hounds.

The uber-prospect Dominguez, who will turn 18 in a couple weeks, jumped a bit from No. 38 in 2020 to No. 33 in 2021. The reports on him continue to glow, as he was one of just two position player prospects on the entire list with grades of 60 or better across the scouting board. There was no consideration for any other player as the Yankees’ best prospect. The kid is a unit.

The lone other hitter to meet the criteria was Royals prospect Bobby Witt Jr., previously the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft. That’s good company for Dominguez to keep, and it’ll be exciting to see watch the teenage wunderkind develop stateside in 2021.

García and Schmidt swapped positions from last year’s rankings, as Schmidt was slightly ahead of García in 2020 — No. 62 vs. No. 65. Deivi’s superior debut season helped pushed him ahead of Schmidt, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s three years younger. García was ranked No. 55, and Schmidt mostly remained stagnant at No. 64. Barring unfortunate circumstances, this will probably be the last year that either is considered a prospect since both are candidates for the 2021 MLB rotation.

Pitcher Luis Gil (who reportedly excelled at the Alternate Site) and catcher Austin Wells (the 2020 first-round pick) are just a few of the notable Yankees prospects who finished outside the industry-wide top 100. If you’re not a Baseball America subscriber, the site did do a good podcast last November on their thoughts about the team’s top 10 prospects.