MLB Draft 2022: Grading the Yankees’ third through fifth round picks

The Yankees kicked off Day 1 of the 2022 MLB Draft with a solid haul based on industry standards, nabbing college players Spencer Jones and Drew Thorpe with their first two picks.

Rounds three and beyond are, well, way harder to interpret, to say the least. Ever since the league instituted the hard cap system after the 2011 CBA, even the first round began increasingly difficult for the average fan to see the larger strategy unless you had real insider sources. Going under-slot value for a first-rounder inevitably means that money will be redistributed to go above and beyond — often on high school players in an attempt to lure them away from college, gambling that they would have become first round-quality players by their junior year.

These machinations are now well under way. The Yankees have surprised in recent years with their college bat selections, with Austin Wells, Trey Sweeney, and now Jones in succession. Surprisingly those first two were nearly or exactly at slot value, but this pick could very well be under, as Jones was projected to finish as late as the second round. The Yankees are clearly hoping that any issues with Jones’ swing can be fixed, turning him into an Aaron Judge-like talent while still being able to check off their wish list in later rounds.

So, what are the Yankees doing in those later rounds? For their third pick, the Yankees opted to yet again target a college player, this time a right-handed pitcher — the Gonzaga pitching staff teammate of first-rounder Gabriel Hughes, Trystan Vrieling. The 21-year-old is yet another large lad at six-foot-four, combining a low-to-mid 90s fastball with a few solid breaking pitches. He’s shown solid performance in the Cape Cod League in 2021, tossing to a 1.03 ERA in a limited 17.1 innings, mostly in relief. As analytics become more and more integrated into draft scouting, such as with Jones’ reported exit velocities, it’s worth noting that Vrieling has an incredibly high-spin slider. We as fans don’t appreciate how much development goes into a selection; just as one can imagine the team thinks they can “fix” Jones’ swing to unlock the raw power, they likely think they can fix Vrieling’s command issues to unlock the spin rate potential.

For their fourth selection, the Yankees picked up (you guessed it) a college outfielder, Anthony Hall of Oregon. Lefties with power are always going to be a Yankee priority, but again, we start squinting more as we cascade through each successive round. Hall had an .892 OPS in his junior season, and an up-and-down year last year at the Cape. He also shows incredible speed, and there is once again the developmental possibility of having a high-speed, high-power lefty who can play dynamic center field. Mileage will of course vary.

The fifth pick was ... more college pitching! This time, it was Eric Reyzelman out of LSU. Reyzelman is no big prospect name and had pretty middling results in his junior year, pitching to a 4.04 ERA, but he had an incredibly encouraging Cape Cod League performance where his pitching coach there was credited to with helping him add a nasty slider. It’s not like his fastball is a bad pitch either:

As with any pick beyond the first round, it is once again a mileage-may-vary situation, especially with pitchers. Yet if the Yankees were able to nab an under-the-radar pitcher who made adjustments to over-perform his current rankings, then kudos to them. Reyzelman did also just have Tommy John surgery two years ago, so it is still a gamble.

So, what do you think? Do you think the Yankees made some mid-round steals, or do you think they should have reached for a higher-potential high school pick? Let us know!