MLB Draft 2021: Grading the Yankees’ overall draft

The 2021 MLB Draft has been concluded, and the Yankees have a host of new players to attempt to sign. Should they get commitments from all of them, 20 new players will enter the organization in the lowest levels of the minors sometime this summer — a big jump up from the five picks that last year provided (and the Yankees only had three available to them that year). The draft is still a ways away from the full 40-round spectacle that it was in the past, but this year should be a significant inflection of talent into the organization.

The Bombers started off the draft by selecting shortstop Trey Sweeney with the 20th overall pick. Sweeney, a product of Eastern Illinois University, impressed with the bat, posting a .382/.522/.712 slash line with 12 homers across 48 games in the Ohio Valley Conference, where he won the conference’s player of the year award. It’s possible that Sweeney eventually develops into more of a third baseman than a shortstop, but the Yankees seem excited by the skillset he’s displayed there so far so he may get his shot to stick around there.

Rounding out the top five, the Yankees went for a pair of arms and a pair of infielders. Brendan Beck was selected in the second round with the 55th overall pick, adding an impressive under-slot pitcher from the PAC-12. Brock Selvidge was taken in the third round with the 92nd overall pick, one of two high school prospects the team took, and he features a potential power arm even as an 18-year-old. Cooper Bowman earned the nod at the 122nd pick, profiling well for the new farm system as a base stealing second baseman, and Tyler Hardman came off the board with the 153rd, an excellent hitting prospect that could man either corner of the infield.

From there the run on pitchers was New York’s overwhelming trend of the draft. Auburn’s Richard Fitts was selected in the sixth round, Oregon’s Robert Ahlstrom got taken in the seventh, Southeastern Louisiana’s Will Warren in the eighth, and USC’s Chandler Champlain in the ninth. Maryland shortstop Benjamin Cowles became the exception to the rule to close out day two, selected in the 10th round with the 333rd overall pick.

Pitching dominated the board for the final day of the draft as well: Ohio State’s Jack Neely, Virginia’s Zach Messinger, Durant High School prospect Sean Hermann, VCU’s Danny Watson, SCF’s Cody Ayers, Penn State’s Bailey Dees, and St. Joseph Regional High School prospect Sean Hard were taken in the 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, and 20th rounds, respectively. Dartmouth catcher Ben Rice, Indiana outfielder Grant Richardson, and Vanderbilt catcher Dominic Keegan broke the mold for the day by being selected in the 12th, 17th, and 19th rounds.

The organization loaded up on arms in this draft, but found time to pick up some key additions to the infield and find some potential batterymates behind the plate. We’ve been asking for your opinion as each phase of the draft has passed by, but now it’s time to judge the net result — as far as your first impressions go, since it’ll take a few years for any notable results to be drawn from this group.

With that caveat aside, let’s ask the question: how did the Yankees fare in the 2021 MLB Draft? Take a second to vote in the poll below, and be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments section.