2024 Sleepers: Ryan Harvey
6-foot-3
195-pounds
Starting pitcher
Right-handed
22-years-old
Drafted: 11th round out of UC Santa Barbara
By Greg Corcoran
After the draft, the Yankees have a unique process with their pitchers. They will typically send them all to Tampa to showcase their talents rather then playing in live games. At this point, they will identify what each player should work on for the next year.
It also allows the development staff to identify players who may benefit from a change in role. In Ryan Harvey’s case, the Yankees decided that despite being a reliever at UC Santa Barbara, he would be transitioned to a starter role in the minor leagues.
It wasn’t the first time Harvey was in this position, as he started games in the WCL Summer League in both 2021 and 2022. Nevertheless, this would certainly be an adjustment for Ryan.
In 2023, the Yankees had Harvey in Extended Spring Training until the FCL season. He excelled in six FCL starts and was promoted to Low-A Tampa. Overall he had 12 starts with a 3.94 ERA and 48 K : 22 BB in 45.2 innings. This was a solid debut, and also represented a career high in innings.
Harvey has three pitches. He throws a fastball that has 6-12 inches of tailing action and about 18-20 inches of vertical break. This year in Tampa, it clocked in at an average velocity of 90.5, but reached as high as 96. He also has a changeup with 12-18 inches of horizontal movement and 30 inches of break. He rounds out his repertoire with a slider that breaks 6 inches horizontally and 30-36 inches vertically. Both the changeup and the slider average about 82 mph.
This is a good starting point for a pitch package. All of Harvey’s pitches move well. The key going forward for Ryan is to start building his velocity. At 6-foot-3, he’s got the size to do just that if he puts in the offseason work and the Yankees can make some mechanical tweaks to his delivery.
As a reliever in college, Harvey was sitting in the 92-94 range and touching 96-97. The velocity is in there, but he will just have to learn to hold it for longer spurts.
Harvey’s ceiling may not be the most exciting, but with the movement he is able to get on his pitches he could slot in as a back-end starter if he continues to improve. This ceiling will begin to become more realistic if he’s able to gain velocity as time progresses. If he’s moved back to the bullpen, it’s likely that he would regain some of the velocity he had as a collegiate, and he could move through the system quickly.
He’ll likely start 2024 back in Tampa and could advance to High-A if he’s made the necessary improvements this offseason. If he’s moved to the bullpen, his timeframe will likely speed up.
Harvey is another arm in the system with some great qualities. The reason the Yankees have done so well in recent years is because they have so many of these types in their system. A proportion of these arms will take a big step forward with the world class pitching development team they have in place. Ryan Harvey has as much a chance as anyone else to be one of those guys.