Around the Empire: Yankees news - 2/3/22

Baseball America: The New York Yankees have an above-average farm system, with three top-100 prospects according to most publications: shortstops Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza, plus outfielder Jasson Domínguez. The organization didn’t crack MLB’s top 10, though, at least according to Baseball America.

While BA praised Volpe and Peraza, as well as a few choice pitchers (like Hayden Wesneski), their paywalled farm system rankings for 2022 had the Yankees checked in at No. 13. That’s enough to get in the top half, but not good enough to rank among the upper third. In fact, the Yankees only ranked better than the No. 19 Blue Jays per BA, with the Rays and Orioles both making the top five and Boston coming in just ahead at No. 11. We’ll have more on the AL East systems later today on the site.

MLB Network | Jon Heyman: MLB and the Players Association still haven’t agreed on a new collective bargaining agreement, though negotiations have been active for three days in a row. Wednesday’s session didn’t represent much progress, but barring some unexpected development, there will be a universal designated hitter rule in 2022, at least according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman.

Heyman tweeted that “both sides (owners and players) are in favor” of a DH in both leagues, “though true to these talks, they don’t seem to totally agree on who benefits most from a DH on all 30 teams.”

NJ Advance Media | Brendan Kuty and Randy Miller: Even though the Yankees have Luke Voit on the roster, they are looking for help at first base, mainly because they don’t trust him to stay healthy and they want a better defender there.

Kuty and Miller offered their opinions about what the Yankees should do at the position. One of them says “go for a Matt Olson trade”, while the other supports the notion of re-signing Anthony Rizzo and keeping their top prospects instead.