{"id":575671,"date":"2026-02-16T14:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T14:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/575671\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T14:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T14:59:17","slug":"yankees-pitching-prospect-chase-hampton-looking-to-rebuild-his-stock-after-tommy-john-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/575671\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees pitching prospect Chase Hampton looking to rebuild his stock after Tommy John surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA \u2014 When it comes to Tommy John patients in Yankees camp, Gerrit Cole and, to a lesser extent, Clarke Schmidt, are commanding the most attention.<\/p>\n

As for pitching prospects, Elmer Rodr\u00edguez, Carlos Lagrange<\/a> and Ben Hess are the main attractions.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another hurler who belongs to both groups. That would be Chase Hampton.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old underwent full reconstruction of his ulnar collateral ligament<\/a> just before Cole did last spring. The operation left Hampton with nothing to do but lift weights, binge movies and TV shows, and play \u201cRocket League\u201d for a while, but he\u2019s now carefully progressing through his rehab process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kind of taking it slow,\u201d Hampton said Saturday.<\/p>\n

The righty spoke after throwing his eighth bullpen since the surgery. Hampton called the session a \u201ctester,\u201d a chance to add some velocity and see how it felt. His fastball seemed to be sitting 90-92 mph.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen a couple of his bullpens now, and it keeps ticking up,\u201d Aaron Boone said. \u201cI know he is kind of chomping at the bit for a little bit more because he\u2019s starting to feel really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither the manager nor Hampton were sure what the pitcher\u2019s next steps are beyond throwing some more bullpens this week. However, Hampton, who also missed time in 2024 with a flexor strain and a groin injury, feels good about where he\u2019s at.<\/p>\n

Not only physically, but mentally as well. The latter is due to the Yankees adding Hampton to their 40-man roster over the offseason. That move protected him from the Rule 5 Draft and signaled that the Yankees still have high hopes for a guy who was a consensus top-100 prospect before the barrage of injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a lot of weight off my shoulders,\u201d Hampton admitted. \u201cIt kind of puts me in a perspective of, \u2018I\u2019ve got some time to get my feet under me and not have to worry about going out there and performing so early.\u2019 So I feel like right now, I\u2019m in a really good spot to continue what I\u2019m doing and continue to get better each day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Boone: \u201cI think there\u2019s still a lot of reason to be excited as he gets closer to being back to full bore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boone also noted that Hampton was successful when healthy in 2024, recording a 2.41 ERA over 18.2 innings between Rookie ball, High-A and Double-A. The year before, he posted a 3.63 ERA over 20 starts split between High-A and Double-A.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously don\u2019t want to put too much pressure on him and want him focused on getting healthy and staying on the field. Obviously, that\u2019s been a challenge the last couple years,\u201d pitching coach Matt Blake said. \u201cHe\u2019s obviously got the talent level to help us if he can get some good reps in and continue to build on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

SCHLITTLER RETURNING TO MOUND SOON<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Aaron Boone said the plan is for Cam Schlittler (back\/lat)<\/a> to throw off flat ground again on Monday. He\u2019s then expected to return to the mound on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

RICE RAKES<\/p>\n

Ben Rice (neck) took live batting practice on Sunday, a welcomed sign after some poor sleep left him achy and absent from swinging sessions for a few days. Despite some soreness, he had been catching during that span.<\/p>\n

CABRERA \u2018FULL-GO\u2019<\/p>\n

Oswaldo Cabrera, who suffered a season-ending ankle fracture last May, said that he expects to be a full go this spring. He\u2019s a candidate for the last spot on the Yankees\u2019 bench, as the versatile utilityman is positioned as the team\u2019s backup shortstop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA \u2014 When it comes to Tommy John patients in Yankees camp, Gerrit Cole and, to a lesser…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,75493,20455,34008,4,1690,62,2548,2547,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-575671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-ben-rice-mlb","10":"tag-cam-schlittler","11":"tag-chase-hampton","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-yankees","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkyankees","17":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116080906589365605","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}