The New York Yankees have been one of the most successful organizations of the past three decades, qualifying for the postseason in 26 of the last 31 years. But in recent years there is one area in which the New York system has faltered: player development at the minor league level.
With this year’s season in the books, the Yankees rate near the bottom of baseball with their farm system. Despite four prospects ranked in the top 100 by MLB Pipeline, the Yankees farm system overall is ranked 23rd out of 30 by Prospects 1500, 25th by Bleacher Report, and also 25th by FanGraphs.
It should not be surprising, then, for the Yankees to make some unusual moves in an effort to deepen their minor league system. On Monday, according to the MiLB.com transactions page, the Yankees very quietly signed a free agent outfielder from the Dominican Republic named Yostin Peña. In fact, the signing was so under-the-radar that the Yankees themselves had not announced it as of Thursday morning, and there seems to have been some confusion over when it actually took place.
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According to the sports business site Spotrac, the date of Peña’s signing was Tuesday, but the social media accounts Yankee Source and YankeesFarm both reported the signing back on Nov. 15.
Who is Peña? Baseball America lists his full name as Yostin Antonio Peña, his birthday as Oct. 19, 2007, in the Dominican Republic — making him 18 years old — and gives his height and weight as 6-foot-4, 205 pounds. He bats and throws right-handed.
Beyond that, not much is known about the new prospect. According to MLB.com, he has no minor league statistics. But according to the social media account Yankees Prospect Watch, “he was signed on international signing day in January with the Cardinals, but did not play in 2025 .”
According to a report by Pinstripes Nation writer Esteban Quiñones, the Cardinals paid Peña a signing bonus of $300,000, which while not an exorbitant amount was enough to indicate that St. Louis “saw real potential in the young outfielder.”
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But he “never played a single game for them,” and “the circumstances behind his arrival in the Bronx remain murky at best,” Quiñones reported.
According to an online post by Redbird Farmhands, an account that monitors Cardinals prospects, “Peña (signed) with the Yankees after his Cardinals contract was voided due to age-related concerns.”
Age and identity fraud has long been a problem in scouting and signing international prospects, and has been recently “on the rise” with players coming out of the Dominican Republic, according to an Athletic report last year by baseball insiders Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal. Players will sometimes represent themselves as younger than they are to deceive teams into believing that have more time for development, according to the report.
Whether that was the case with Peña has not been confirmed, but the fact the Yankees signed the prospect at age 18 after his apparently controversial history would seem to indicate that they see enough potential talent in him to overlook the questions in his past.
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