Late 2024 Yankees Top 30 Prospects: 5-1

It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for. Our Top 5 prospects after the 2024 season.

The Minor League season has come to a close, so it’s time for us to renew our Top 30 prospects. Some players that you like may have been left out because this is a purely subjective ranking. Everyone will have their opinions on players, and that’s fine. I have also left off some players like Ben Rice, Oswald Peraza, etc., because they have “graduated”. For example, Rice and Peraza have played in more than 30 games; Will Warren and Yoendrys Gómez have been left off because they have pitched more than 10 innings. They may still be considered “rookies”, of which the official definition is as follows: “130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues. 45 total days on an active Major League roster during the Championship Season (excluding time on the Injured List).” 

The acronym OFP you’ll see below is an “overall future projection” as to how the prospect is projected to turn out. It’s difficult to say how one player will pan out; there are superstar looking prospects that fizzle out before they get to the Majors, and there are very quiet prospects that aren’t really on anyone’s radar that surprise you when they make the Major Leagues. 

 

5: RHP Ben Hess – ETA: 2028; OFP: 55; Risk: Extreme 

I’ll be honest, I’m kind of taking a leap of faith with Hess with everything I’ve seen (video, written and stats) by ranking him 5th overall. I’ve said this a number of times: it’s difficult to rank college players in a pro top 30 because the jump to pro ball isn’t always easy. However, Hess seems like he should be able to handle it, especially considering he’s coming from a Division I SEC school (Alabama).  

Just to go over some of the stats Yankees fans can look forward to, Hess holds the ‘Bama career record for K/9 with 13.34 (205 K/138.1 IP). He also had a 5.80 ERA (44 ER/68.1 IP) with a team-high 106 K compared to 35 BB; that’s good for a 13.96 K/9 and a BB/9 of 4.61. Hess was ranked 8th in the SEC in strikeouts, including 35 looking Ks which was good for 5th in the SEC. 

While Hess was used as a starter throughout his 2024 Junior season, he spent his freshman season of 2022 as a starter that moved to the bullpen at the end of the year. The Yankees will likely choose to use him in the starter role but considering how high his K/9 numbers have been, don’t be surprised to see him get moved to the bullpen at some point. 

Given the pattern we have seen the past few years, I would expect Hess to make his professional debut with High-A Hudson Valley in 2025. Hampton did so in 2023, and Carr did the same in 2024. I would also expect that if Hess remains as starter, he’s used as a #1/#2 starter, but it’s a bit too early to project that. There’s some concern about past injuries (Hess missed most of 2023 with an injury), so hopefully he can stay healthy in upcoming years. 

 

4: INF George Lombard Jr. – ETA: 2027; OFP: 55; Risk: High 

I hate comparing prospects to other players, especially those either in the system or former Yankees farm hands, but Lombard reminds me so much of former SS prospect Trey Sweeney. Like Sweeney, Lombard was also a 1st round pick (Sweeney was selected 1st round in the 2022 MLB Draft), and Lombard also has somewhat of a questionable future with the team. With he and #3 prospect Roderick Arias fighting for playing time in Low-A Tampa, manager James Cooper chose to play Lombard at 2B for a significant part of the season. Lombard also played at 3B in 9 games, but did not do well there, recording a fielding percentage of .750 (5 errors in 20 total chances). Lombard was a better defender at 2B (.974) than at SS (.952), but Lombard ultimately recorded 23 errors in 2024. 

Lombard struggled throughout much of the season offensively, ending his time with Tampa with a slash of .232/.344/.348/.692 (81 games in 2024). His month and change with High-A Hudson Valley did not fare better, as it sometimes does with prospects, as he had a slash while there of .226/.321/.296/.617. Still, despite this and the late power we saw blossom in Tampa, Lombard has good mechanics and needs a very small adjustment to become an elite hitter. Once fans watch Lombard in person for a few games (you can only really see so much from the MiLB TV streams), they should be able to see the solid mechanics Lombard has. A lot of that can be attributed to growing up in a baseball household. His father used to play Major League baseball, and his brother, Jacob, is expected to be drafted in upcoming years. Jacob also attends Gulliver Prep and is part of the Class of 2026 (watch some video from Perfect Game, and you’ll see some similarities there). 

Lombard is ranked at the #4 position because of the high ceiling he has. He’s still extremely early in his career, all things considered, and has lots of room to grow, both physically and in a performance aspect. It’s questionable whether Lombard will hold a role with the Yankees long term, and that may be another commonality he has with Sweeney. I see Arias with a higher ceiling and overall performance potential compared to Lombard, which is why Arias is ranked higher, of course. If I were making the decisions, I would hold onto Arias (read on to learn why) and I would trade Lombard. Still, Lombard holds a lot of potential, and he will likely become a Major Leaguer with one of the 30 teams. 

 

3: INF Roderick Arias – ETA: 2027; OFP: 55; Risk: Extreme 

This may sound odd but hear me out on this: I see a lot of Jasson Domínguez in Arias. Both had less than stellar initial Low-A seasons, but as time went on, they figured things out. 

Arias really struggled at the plate at the beginning of the season, striking out in 42.9% of at-bats in April (36 SO in 84 AB), but by the time July came around, was down to a 25.6% K rate. Despite the high-ish K rate, Arias still had good plate discipline, working a 12.3% BB%. He still needs to work on his discipline with breaking balls, as that’s his biggest weakness at the plate, in my opinion. 

We did see a lot more of Arias’ power this year, as he had the best BABIP of his short career at .331. Using the comparison to Dominguez, there isn’t as much of a disparity when looking at splits between left and right-handed batting. Arias batted .222/.291/.253/.544 as a right-handed batter (versus LHP) and .235/.346/.430/.776 as a lefty batter (versus RHP). It should be noted that Arias batted as LHB in 374 AB and as RHB in 99 AB. 

I mentioned with Lombard about how the two interacted with each other this year in Tampa. Having two top middle infielders on the same roster is difficult to manage, and seeing Arias and Lombard swap out 2B and SS every few games was really interesting. As was alluded to previously, Lombard is a better SS than anywhere else on the field, so it works out that Arias is a better second baseman than shortstop. 

That said, Arias has had an underwhelming glove throughout his very short career, and that’s the one tool that’s of concern. He owns a .912 fielding percentage in 1108-2/3 innings at SS and had 22 errors this past season in 699-2/3 innings in Low-A Tampa. 

 

2: RHP Chase Hampton – ETA: 2025; OFP: 60; Risk: Extreme 

Hampton missed most of the 2024 season with various injuries, landing on the IL in mid-August with a groin injury, so we have to base projections off of what Hampton did last season between High-A Hudson Valley and Double-A Somerset. I think it’s fair to say that Hampton had an off year in 2024 after pitching in less than 20 innings, with 13 of them having been on rehab assignments with FCL and Low-A.  

In his last game with Low-A Tampa (where we can reliably get pitch data from), Hampton threw a mix of four-seamer, cutter, curveball, sinker and a slider, leaning predominantly on the fastball. The fastball and sinker sat low-90s, the cutter sat high-80s, the slider sat low-80s and the curveball sat mid-70s. That’s an excellent range of pitch speeds, and the difference in velocity between the fastball at 94 MPH and the curveball at 76 MPH is exceptional. That said, there isn’t a lot of difference in spin between the 5 pitches, so Hampton has to lean on his pitch location, which in this specific outing was very good. 

Considering that 2024 was a “throw away” season of sorts because of injury, it should seem fair to discount the lesser stats he put up compared to the 2023 season. Hampton threw a commendable 4.37 ERA in Double-A after only throwing 47 innings in High-A Hudson Valley where he made his professional debut. He put up an impressive 2.68 ERA, a 14.74 K/9 and a 3.09 BB/9, but his BABIP was less than stellar at .283 while in Hudson Valley. Hampton then threw a 10.26 K/9 and a 3.17 BB/9 in 59-2/3 innings in Double-A, with a combined ERA in 2023 of 3.63 and a WHIP of 1.14. 

I don’t know if it’s fair to project where Hampton will sit with the Yankees, as his stuff shouts “bullpen” to me. While he was most frequently used in 4-5 inning outings, he has pitched as many as 7 innings in a few instances, throwing 90+ pitches in those outings. He may fare better eliminating the slider, as the cutter and curveball induced more swing and miss in the previously mentioned outing. In some video I saw of starts in 2024, that slider did not show nearly as much movement as the curveball or cutter.

If Hampton is used as a starter, he may fit best as a #3 or #4 starter, although his stats from 2023 in Double-A do line up with a starter like what Carlos Rodón did in 2024. However, I keep thinking of the Yankees’ dynasty era of another homegrown pitcher that had a sharp fastball/cutter combo. It’s entirely possible that’s the direction the Yankees go. Hampton has the confidence and grit needed to be a closer. The possibilities and high ceiling are what make Hampton the top pitcher in the Yankees farm system, but he needs to stay healthy. 

 

1: OF Jasson Dominguez – ETA: 2023; OFP: 60; Risk: High

I know I said in the lead-in that I’d be excluding prospects, but I think an exception should be made for Domínguez for the sole reason that he played about a week in the Majors before he went on the IL and needed Tommy John surgery. Domínguez will likely “graduate” by the time the next ranking comes around. Domínguez ended the 2024 MLB season at exactly 100 career plate appearances. 

“The Martian” still has a lot to prove, because left field, as he’s been playing a lot of this time around, isn’t his natural position. You can see he’s been struggling a bit out in left, and his plus speed has saved him a few times. That speed, by the way, looks rather clunky on his stocky frame, but he’s slimmed down quite a bit compared to what I saw in Tampa in his debut season. But, if you look at the stats throughout his Minor League career, his fielding percentages in both LF and CF overall are pretty close. This year seems to be much worse for Domínguez in LF (89-1/3 innings), as he posted a .905 fielding percentage versus .953 in CF (236 innings). 

There’s so much promise in the Dominican prospect and I’d be remiss not to rank him the top prospect. That said, the “sophomore slump” other former prospects have experienced this year is real, so I’m not holding too much against Domínguez this season. Domínguez has been working more walks over last season despite not hitting home runs at a truly insane pace. 

Domínguez has been a predominantly ground ball hitter throughout his career. If you were to rank those types of hits throughout his career, it would be ground balls at 47%, fly balls at 30% and line drives at 23%. It’s worked for him, and with a “hard hit” rate (balls hit over 95 MPH) in the Majors at 52%, getting balls through the gap is crucial if he’s not going to bloop them into the outfield or hit them over the wall for a home run. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s something the Yankees’ coaching staff is working on, or if they’re trying to get him to elevate the hit ball more for a line drive. He has a lot in common with fellow Dominican outfielder, Juan Soto in that regard; both have similar hit ball stats, except that Soto hits the ball harder, on average. 

The progression and maturation of talent by Domínguez that those of us fortunate enough to follow the minor league system has been rather rewarding. I said in a scouting report back in 2021 that he was too stocky to run the speed Yankees scouts had said he was capable of, and even going into the 2023 season, I wasn’t sold on Domínguez’s talents. I still stand by my grades for the most part, bumping the hit tool up to an above-average (55) and the OFP to 60 given he’s made the Majors. Will he be the “occasional all-star” as I noted in that report? That’s for him to prove.