The Yankees took a shortstop with their first pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, selecting Eastern Illinois’ Trey Sweeney with the 20th overall pick, which could create a crowded position in the organization.
Anthony Volpe, recently promoted to High-A on Tuesday, has shown promise as a former first-round pick, while Gleyber Torres is still just 24 years old, but has struggled badly in his last two seasons.
But as Yankees Vice President and Director of Amateur Scouting Damon Oppenheimer told reporters on Wednesday, the team doesn’t take positional logjams into account when making their picks. It comes down to grabbing the best player on the board, which they feel they got with Sweeney in the first round.
“Especially early in the draft, it was completely about taking the best available player,” Oppenheimer said. “We’re gonna have logjams. Anthony Volpe is gonna be a logjam at shortstop for a lot of people. That’s a situation, you just can’t stop in the amateur world, not taking the best or not taking somebody because you’re short on a position or if you have too many…Sweeney was the best guy we thought at the time. Even though we have a Volpe coming, you still make that pick.”
Oppenheimer also said that the team’s plan wasn’t to prioritize college players, even if only one pick of the team’s first 13 was out of high school. But the vast majority of the team’s draft picks will be coming from a college program, with just three of the team’s picks this draft coming right from the high school ranks.
“The plan wasn’t to just go college,” Oppenheimer said. “Realistically, when you look at our board, we did some mocks and things amongst the group, there were half a dozen times where it was three straight high school guys. It just didn’t fall that way for us.”
The team’s lone high school selection through the first 13 rounds was Brock Selvidge, a lefty pitcher from Hamilton High School in Arizona. The 92nd overall pick felt like a steal to Oppenheimer, who sees a lot of potential in the 18-year-old and expects the Yanks to be able to complete the signing despite Selvidge’s commitment to LSU.
“We did feel really fortunate we were able to get Brock Selvidge in the third round,” Oppenheimer said. “We think we’re gonna get that one done and he’ll become a Yankee real soon and get his career started with us. He was a guy last summer or at this time, we thought he was one of the top three pitchers in high school going into this year’s draft…we felt real comfortable with him. We like the athlete. This guy is a two-way guy. He’s probably a prospect as an outfielder too. So we were excited about that. He had a hiccup during his spring a little bit because of some different coaching philosophies, and he got back on track.”
Oppenheimer added that he feels confident that all of the Yankees’ draft picks, particularly the early-round selections, will be able to be signed and officially join the organization.
“We do think we’re in pretty good shape moving forward with all of these guys, pending physicals and all that,” Oppenheimer said.
The Yankees’ other top-three pick was their second-round selection in Stanford pitcher Brendan Beck, taken 55th overall. The PAC-12 Pitcher of the Year is a 6-foot-2 righty who typically sits in the low 90s, but Oppenheimer has seen more velocity from Beck and sees him as a candidate to quickly move up the minor league ranks and toward the Bronx.
“We think he could be really close,” Oppenheimer said. “There’s not a lot that has to happen with him. There’s not a lot of development that has to go in. He just probably is going to need to build up innings. But he’s really athletic…he throws strikes, he has four pitches, he’s been up to 96-97, can also gear it back like a starter and pitch at 92 and go get the other stuff when he needs it…we think we got a guy who has four pitches, has command and is athletic. We think we’re getting a high-end starter.”
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