The end of spring training is filled with various forms of lists. Which teams have the best lineup/pitching staff/bullpen/roster? Who are the best veterans who failed to crack the Opening Day roster and found themselves on waivers or as free agents? Who looks primed for a breakout season? And conversely, who struggled the most, and is now a cause for concern?
Among these many lists are, of course, preseason prospect rankings. Over the last few years, the Yankees have not exactly fared well in this category — this year, for example, ESPN ranks them 23rd in baseball, while FanGraphs states that the Yankees farm “resides among the bottom handful in baseball.” The thing about prospects, though, is that ranking them while they’re still prospects only tells part of the story; to get the full picture, you need to return years later, and analyze them once more, this time with the benefit of hindsight.
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In that regard, let’s turn the clock back five years, and take a look at the Yankees’ top prospects at the start of the 2021 campaign, using MLB.com’s Top 30 list as a starting point. Of the players on this list, almost two-thirds have cracked an MLB roster at some point, including 9 of the top 10, and 13 of the top 15. But what is more interesting, in my opinion, than just where they ended up, is how the Yankees opted to employ them. To that end, rather than list the players according to their rankings, I’ve opted to organize them according to, well, how their careers have gone.
Players Allowed to Develop
Players in this category: Jasson Domínguez (1), Clarke Schmidt (2), Deivi García (3), Oswald Peraza (4), Luis Gil (5), Austin Wells (6), Yoendrys Gómez (8), Estevan Florial (10), Anthony Volpe (11), Alexander Vargas (13), Antonio Gomez (21), Anthony Seigler (22), Ryder Green (25), Matt Sauer (26), Jake Sanford (29)
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Yankees attempted to develop the majority of their top prospects into big league contributors, with mixed results. Clarke Schmidt has arguably been the most successful of the bunch, as he has flashed No. 2 starter potential in his five years in pinstripes. Across his last 30 starts, in fact, he has a 3.07 ERA and has been worth 3.7 rWAR; unfortunately, that spans two seasons (2024 and 2025), and due to elbow surgery, he will not return to the mound until this summer at the earliest. Austin Wells and Anthony Volpe, meanwhile, established themselves as strong defenders and put together strong stretches at the plate in 2024, but their 2025 performance raised more questions than they answered. Injuries and inconsistency have similarly marred Luis Gil’s career to date despite a 2024 AL Rookie of the Year win.
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While these players’ futures may have questions, they were undeniably key components of the Yankees’ most successful season since the 2009 World Series: the 2024 American League pennant winners. That’s more than can be said for, well, pretty much everybody else on the list.
Oswald Peraza flashed in a cameo at the end of 2022, lost the starting shortstop job to Volpe in spring training in 2023, and pretty much bottomed out afterward; in 106 games between the Yankees and Angels last season, he posted an OPS+ of 33. Following a strong stint with the Yankees during the later parts of the shortened 2020 campaign, Deivi García posted an ERA of almost seven in Scranton in 2021 and 2022, was demoted to Double-A Somerset, turned into a reliever, and eventually designated for assignment; he was claimed by the White Sox, continued to struggle, and is now out of organized baseball. Yoendrys Gómez made all of 12 appearances for the Yankees as a reliever, was designated for assignment by the Yankees and Dodgers last season, and then traded by the White Sox to the Rays this past winter (coincidentally, for another former Yankees farmhand). The toolsy Estevan Florial never resolved his contact issues and has since been dealt to Cleveland, traveled to the KBO, and, most recently, signed on in the Mexican League.
Then you have Jasson Domínguez. The much-hyped prospect, still just 23 years old, made a splash when he made his debut at the end of 2023, missed most of 2024 due to injuries, and had mixed results as a part-time player in 2025. He appears ticketed to Triple-A Scranton to start this season, which would be alarming for a prospect who has been around as long as he has been, except for the fact that he is still just 23. Five years after he was the organization’s top prospect, the Martian’s story has hardly been written.
The 2021 Trade Chips
Players in this category: Alexander Vizcaíno (9), Kevin Alcántara (12), Josh Smith (14), Ezequiel Duran (15), Trevor Hauver (23), Glenn Otto (28)
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Despite having just a 46-43 record at the All-Star Break, the 2021 Yankees opted to be buyers at the trade deadline, sending Josh Smith, Ezequiel Durán, Glenn Otto, and Trevor Hauver to the Rangers for Joey Gallo and Joely Rodríguez, Alexander Vizcaíno and Kevin Alcántara to the Cubs for Anthony Rizzo, and some low-level prospects for Andrew Heaney and Clay Holmes.
Mathematically, these deals turned out to be disasters for the Yankees (save for Holmes), even if they were generally praised at the time — including by yours truly. Gallo lost the ability to hit when he came to the Yankees, accrued just 0.5 rWAR between his acquisition at the 2021 deadline and his trade to the Dodgers at the 2022 one, and has now tried to make a comeback as a relief pitcher. Rizzo was much better, spending parts of four seasons in the Bronx after re-signing and becoming a leader in the clubhouse beside Aaron Judge; and if he had not played through a 2023 concussion he didn’t know he had for months, he likely would have put together more value than the 3.7 rWAR he did in pinstripes.
Of the players traded, there are really only two the organization truly misses: Smith and Alcántara. Smith has been a solid starter for the Rangers the past two seaesons, putting together a .254/.336/.380 slash line while playing adequate defense throughout the infield; for an organization which has been cobbling together the hot corner for a few years now, that would have been a welcome improvement. Vizcaíno only pitched six games for the Cubs before a 2022 spring training dispute led to him leaving MLB, but Alcántara has become one of Chicago’s top prospects, and is currently ranked 60th on the FanGraphs prospect list. Duran was good in a versatile role for the Rangers’ 2023 World Series champions, but has since regressed to replacement-level.
The 2022 Trade Chips
Players in this category: Luis Medina (7), T.J. Sikkema (16), Albert Abreu (18), Beck Way (24), Ken Waldichuk (27), Hayden Wesneski (30)
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At the time, the Yankees’ Trade Deadline in 2022 looked like a masterclass, as the Yankees added a top-of-the-rotation starter under contract in 2023 in Frankie Montas, a former closer in Lou Trivino, a dominant reliever with years of team control in Scott Effross, and the lefty outfielder they needed in Andrew Benintendi to a squad that was 64-28 and already running away with the AL East at the All-Star break. Montas, however, turned out to be damaged goods and only made nine appearances in pinstripes, Benintendi and Effross both got injured and were unavailable come playoff time, and though he was fine down the stretch, Trivino joined the walking wounded as well at the start of 2023 and never pitched again for the big-league club. Effross’ years of control were for naught by the way, as he was a shadow of his former self upon returning from injury and threw just 14 total innings for them from 2023-25 before being nontendered.
Of the prospects traded away, well, most of them were pitching prospects, and that means most of them have also spent extensive time on the shelf: Medina, Waldichuk, and Wesneski have all undergone Tommy John surgery, for example. Rather ironically, the biggest contribution any of these players has made to this point may belong to Wesneski, who was one of the pieces the Cubs sent to the Astros to acquire Kyle Tucker … thus opening the door to the Yankees’ acquisition of Cody Bellinger.
Special shoutout here to Albert Abreu, who netted the Yankees Jose Trevino right before the season, then returned to the squad later that June.
The 2024 Trade Chips
Players in this category: Brandon Lockridge (20)
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The Yankees used a number of prospects at the Trade Deadline in 2024 to reel in Jazz Chisholm Jr., Mark Leiter, and Enyel De Los Santos. However, the only prospect traded who had been among the top prospects in 2021 was Brandon Lockridge, who was sent to the Padres for De Los Santos in what was a lose/lose trade. Lockdrige made his debut with San Diego later that season, had just two hits in 12 games, and was traded to the Brewers at the 2025 deadline for Nestor Cortes, who then made six starts for San Diego before requiring surgery on his throwing arm.
And somehow, that was the better end of the deal. De Los Santos was an absolute disaster for the Yankees and was designated for assignment in less than two weeks.
The 2025 Trade Chips
Players in this category: Everson Pereira (17)
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For the second consecutive season, the Yankees made a number of moves at the deadline to fill holes, trading away a small army of prospects in order to acquire Ryan McMahon, David Bednar, Camilo Doval, Jake Bird, and José Caballero. Once again, only one of those prospects had been highly-regarded in the organization since 2021: Pereira, who was flipped to Tampa Bay for Cabby.
To date, Pereira has been the quintessential Quadruple-A player, capable of mashing Triple-A pitching to the tune of a .271/.362/.519 career slash line, while being unable to hit big league pitching. After just half a season, the Rays have seemingly given up on him, sending him to the South Side of Chicago in a deal to acquire aforementioned fellow former Yankees farmhand Yoendrys Gómez.
All in all, looking back at this list, we can maybe begin to push back against the idea that the Yankees’ farm has failed them in recent years. While it would be nice for the farm to develop a top-of-the-rotation starter or another big bat to slot in front of or behind Judge (fingers crossed that Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice continue on their trajectory to do just that), the Yankees have been able to build their MLB roster by developing and trading away prospects for big-league talent. Has every trade worked out? Absolutely not! But just the fact that the farm has been able to develop players desired by other teams is, at the end of the day, a sign that the farm is doing what it needs to do.