Yankees fans think the “Martian” is their most exciting prospect to watch

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across Major League Baseball. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged-in New York Yankees fans, and fans across the country. Sign up here to join Reacts.

This week’s edition of SB Nation Reacts brings us two burning questions, one regarding the Yankees and their prospects, and the other one with the higher offensive output league-wide as the main theme.

Who is the most exciting prospect to watch in the Yankees’ system? The answers might be a bit surprising. What about the reasons behind the offensive resurgence in MLB?

Let’s find out what our readers think!

Kyle Thele

Anthony Volpe would probably be a good candidate for this particular question, but he is now a part of the Yankees present and future as their starting shortstop since the beginning of the season. That’s why he is not included and Oswald Peraza is.

Yankees fans, however, are captivated by what the “Martian” represents as a prospect and, particularly, what he can become as a player. 50 percent of the voters are taking him as the most exciting prospect to watch.

Dominguez has a unique blend of power, contact, speed, and on-base ability. At 20-years-old, he is also young for his level (Double-A). The 2023 campaign will be crucial for him, as he will show whether or not he is ready to handle upper-minors pitching.

Spencer Jones, the Yankees’ first-round pick in 2022, got 35 percent of the votes. He is slashing .351/.405/.730 in 42 plate appearances at High-A, but that comes with a 33.3 percent strikeout rate.

Peraza was a distant third in the voting, with eight percent. He lost the spring training battle to be the Yanks’ starting shortstop to Volpe, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t an exciting prospect to follow. At peak, he could be a 15 homer, 30-steal shortstop with great defense, and those aren’t easy to find.

Kyle Thele

Now this is an interesting question, with even more interesting results from MLB-wide fans. There has been an offensive explosion in 2023.

Last year, the overall league batting line was .243/.312/.395 with a .706 OPS. This year, the numbers are .247/.322/.403 with a .726 so far. The difference is considerable.

Now, what is the cause? Well, 46 percent of the voters say that the shift restrictions are the most logical explanation behind the offensive surge. Although shifting hasn’t completely disappeared, it makes sense to think that the restrictions put in place by MLB have increased the overall offensive output.

31 percent of the people taking part in the poll believe that pitchers being rushed by the pitch clock is the best way to explain the higher offensive numbers. Pitching in a rush could potentially affect control and command and, therefore, reflect in average, OBP and slugging numbers.

Of course, random variation could also be behind the offensive environment in 2023. If that’s the case - and 12 percent of the voters think so - you can expect some of the offensive numbers to regress to the mean and get closer and closer to last season’s.

There’s also reason to believe that the ball is livelier than it was last year. A solid 11 percent of those participating in the poll think this might be the best reason to explain the elevated offensive numbers.