The Yankees’ 20 picks in the 2024 MLB Draft featured 19 college players (with only one from the JUCO ranks) and 13 pitchers, but that wasn’t necessarily fully intentional, especially the latter even after losing so many top prospect pitchers from the system in the last two-plus seasons.
“We could’ve been having this call and the first two guys could’ve been position players, but this is the way things fell,” VP of Amateur Scouting Damon Oppenheimer said on a conference call Thursday. “We like pitching and thought throughout the draft we had a chance at some power arms who could pitch, and we kept plugging away with those. The strategy is to take the best available players when we can, but obviously, we’ve done a lot of research on what gets to the big leagues with pitching – and you need a lot of it to hold up over time, especially nowadays. We’ve used pitching talent as currency to get other players, so that’s always in the back of your mind, but as hard as hitting is, it’s about attacking hitting with really good pitching to give yourself a chance.”
As for the collegians, well, shortening the draft to 20 rounds means a lot less “fliers” as it were, but the way NIL is changing the landscape of college baseball doesn’t actually mean a true trend towards the collegiate players in the draft.
“That’s not a strategy to just go college; it could’ve easily been four high school guys in Top 10, it just flips that way for you when someone takes a guy you might have been targeting, or signability gets in the way,” Oppenheimer said. “We actually found a lot more high school kids were receptive to wanting to sign, because they took a look at some of the college landscape and saw guys sit their whole freshman year because someone brought in an older portal transfer. We’re seeing a little bit of both, where the high school guy might be more receptive, but seeing college guys that were more signable that are now getting NIL money and going back. It’s a new world for us.”
Regardless, the first few picks in the draft were all power pitchers, starting with Alabama’s Ben Hess – who ‘checked out healthy at the Combine’ – so there was a bit of a type at least at the top in looking for best available.
“We’ve been scouting Ben for quite some time and when he’s been really good, it’s three pitches that are dynamite: a fastball up to 98 MPH, now a plus curve, a slider, and a changeup that’s developed over time to where it’s above average,” Oppenheimer said. “Two plus breaking balls with velocity gives us a chance to get power starters. We looked to our analysts to see who has big improvable traits, and when you pass them on to Sam (Director of Pitching Sam Briend) and staff, it’s a comfortable feeling to send pitchers down here (to the “Gas Station” in Tampa). We have some target things that we’re looking for, combined with what pitching development here sees, and if they think they can make stuff a tick better and closer to the big leagues. So it’s let’s target these things, and these are the types of guys player development likes to have.
It’s putting a round peg in a round hole, something that really fits for us.”
And as for the middle and later rounds, well, Oppenheimer admitted that pitching usually trumps hitting in those rounds when it comes to players developing into big leaguers, but again, it can be a crapshoot.
“We’re still trying to do the best available player; history says big leaguers in that area of the draft tend to come from pitching more than hitting, but that doesn’t mean you’re just going to completely blow by a bat,” he said. “It’s playing the numbers if you’re trying to get guys who can play in the majors.”
Indeed, Oppenheimer knows it’s a new world for everyone with a shorter Draft, less roster spots in the minors, and NIL changing the amateur landscape, but he’s confident that what the Yankees selected will yield most, if not all, signing contracts.
“When I first started you were working with carbon paper to make multiple copies and there were no radar guns, and now, we incorporate so many different people into decisions, from sports science to Player Development,” Oppenheimer said. “There’s a ton of video and analytics we have to take deeper dives into non-traditional numbers, but we still have to stay grounded with the back of the baseball card numbers. It becomes a little more complicated than back in the old days, there’s a lot more to take into consideration, but we’re confident we’ll get the majority of these guys done.”