2024 Sleeper: Tyrone Yulie with video

by Greg Corcoran

Video credit: YankeesFarm

6-foot-4

180-pounds

Starting pitcher

Right-handed

22-years-old

Born: La Romana, Dominican Republic

Tyrone Yulie had an up and down season in 2023, but overall, he improved from 2022. This has been the case every season since the Yankees signed him at 17-years-old. Yulie has been with the organization since 2019, yet he is still just 22-years-old.

In 2022, the Yankees gave Yulie a chance in the full season leagues. He held his own at the level but walked a few too many. Still, it was better than he did in 2021. This past season, he reduced his walk rate from 5.7/9 innings to 4.9/9 innings. Meanwhile, his strikeout rate increased to 10.3/9 innings. As a result, his ERA reduced to 4.56. His season was unfortunately cut short in August due to injury, but he made encouraging progress along the way.

Yulie finished with 79 innings in 2023, nine less than his career high of 87 innings. If he is able to pitch next season, he could be on the docket for as many as 120 innings.

Tyrone is your prototypical power pitcher who struggles with command. Sitting in the upper-90’s and even hitting triple-digits, it’s easy to get excited about his potential. He has an above average changeup and a slider that has progressed over the years.

Yulie has improved his walk rate every season all while moving up one level at a time. Many people don’t realize how hard that is to do. The control must improve enough to account for hitters with better plate discipline, as well as umpires who are more discerning about the strike zone. Yulie is still young and the control is getting better. That’s a good sign.

As you can see from the video from YankeesFarm, batters have a lot of trouble keeping up with Yulie’s fastball, especially when it is up in the zone. This is a big part of his game and could carry him to the major leagues in any number of roles.

At the moment, Yulie has the ceiling of a 4-5 starter, but if his control and slider improve that ceiling could go higher. It’s easy to see that his stuff would profile nicely in the bullpen. Even a modest increase in control could give him the opportunity to air it out in the pen, where he could find his niche. His fastball has touched triple-digits in the past, and that would likely be a much more frequent occurrence out of the bullpen.

Tyrone should begin 2024 in High-A again with an outside chance to begin in Double-A. If he is moved to the bullpen, he could move quickly and break out. If not, it would take a significant improvement in command to get to that breakout season.

It would be a mistake to write off Yulie because of mediocre statistics. He is the type of player who could take a huge leap forward out of nowhere. It wouldn’t be shocking to see him do just that in 2024.