:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/45698478/452060130.0.jpg)
Background
Ty Hensley was selected by the Yankees in the first round of the 2012 draft out of Edmond Santa Fe High School in Oklahoma. Issues cropped up for Hensley almost immediately after his selection, losing out on some of his signing bonus because of an asymptomatic shoulder abnormality that was discovered during his physical. He required surgery on both his hips that caused him to miss the entire 2013 season and some of 2014 before finally making it out of Rookie Ball with 11.2 innings at Short Season-A Staten Island last year.
2014 Results
Hensley performed well in limited time last season, pitching to a 2.93 ERA between the Gulf Coast League and the New York-Penn League across 30.2 innings. The biggest hurdle to get over has seemingly been just to get Hensley on the field to this point in his professional career. Those promising results in an admittedly small sample size were enough to at least feel good about Hensley's chances of performing in 2015 if he could remain healthy. A brutal offseason attack by a former professional football player put that promise of health in question a bit with Hensley ending up with multiple facial fractures, a broken jaw, and head injuries after an argument over signing bonuses turned senselessly ugly. Hensley is expected to make a full recovery from his injuries, but it could put his status for the beginning of the season in doubt.
2015 Outlook
Assuming that Hensley is healthy enough to begin the season on time, he could start out with the Charleston RiverDogs at Low-A. Finally being able to get a taste of full season baseball would be a big step forward in Hensley's career. At 21 years old, he's no longer young for how little experience he's been able to get but being drafted out of high school affords him the ability to now be about the age of most college players who will be at a similar level. All is not lost for Hensley's future, but he's going to need to find a way to stay on the mound to get his stock back to something close to the point that it was when he was selected in the first round a few years ago. He could use a little luck in the worst way.