The Yankees have taken their first outfield talent of the 2015 MLB Draft as they select Jeff Hendrix from Oregon State University. The 6-foot, 198-pounder was drafted out of the 39th round last year, but decided to return to college for his junior year and it seems to have paid off for him. Baseball America ranks him as the No. 2 talent in the state of Oregon and rank him 156th in the nation.
BA says he has above-average speed and good instincts for center field, despite a bigger body build. He lacks the arm strength for right field–think Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner arms–and some think it could ultimately lead him to a fourth outfielder-type role. He lacks strength due to an ugly-looking slash-swing, but his hand-eye coordination makes it work for him. He's already 22, so expect him to maybe get an advanced promotion in order to get him to the upper minors faster. MLB.com did not rank him among their top 200.
He has hit .324/.430/.518 in 2015, but he's only stolen a career-high of four stolen bases in his collegiate career, so he's not going to steal many bases. This pick is incredibly questionable, considering that both Skye Bolt (sorry Tanya) and Mariano Rivera were both on the board and the organization ended up losing out on both of them. It's not incredibly exciting.