The Prospect Notebook 4/7-4/12

via Colorado Rockies

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The Yankees had their first complete week of minor league baseball, with every organization playing 6 games (albeit with Scranton and Somerset being forced into double headers because of weather). While weather was still a bit of a story, there were hot bats and arms among all 4 levels. This week, we look at two 2025 draftee pitchers, a veteran bat, and an interesting new acquisition.

Blake Gillespie, RHP

Line: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 6 K, 1 BB, 0.00 ERA, 2.11 FIP

The Yankees 9^th round pick out of UNC-Charlotte, Gillespie was hyped because of his slider However, during my watch of his Tuesday outing had me intrigued another pitch. The 22-year-old Gillespie pitches from a modified stretch. With a  quick and tight arm motion, he did a fairly good job of pitching into the zone, although is overall strike rate was helped by some bad chases by low-A hitters. While the delivery is compact and repeatable, Gillespie doesn’t get much extension down the mound, which adds some concern given his velocity.

Gillespie features a repertoire of a four-seam fastball, slider, and changeup. To righties, he was almost exclusively fastball and slider but would throw all 3 pitches to lefties. The fastball has a velocity issue, as it didn’t even average 90mph over the course of his 6 innings. While it did feature some interesting arm side run that helped induce chases above the zone, I worry about this pitch as he climbs the ladder. When thrown in the zone and swung at, it is very susceptible to hard contact. He did hit 92 and 93 a couple of times, so there is some hope he could sustain higher velocities on the fastball as starts go on.

While the slider was advertised as the primary weapon, and was his most used pitch, I found myself disappointed by its use. I found the shape of the slider to be inconsistent. Sometimes it came out very loopy, other times he found the expected tight shape, and other times he completely lost it. Further, he seemed to not hit spots with it consistently, leaving it over the middle and at the top of the zone more than you would like to see. This very well could’ve just been a tough outing in terms of his control, so we will have to see how the pitch looks the next few weeks, but I just didn’t think the pitch lived up to the hype. While overall I was disappointed by the pitch, there was a sequence in the 5^th where he threw 3 perfect sliders for a strikeout that was very impressive.

What impressed me most was his changeup. When he threw the pitch well, it had great horizontal break to the arm side, inducing a lot of whiffs and chase. While there were a few changeups that did have too much vertical drop, making it look more like a curve, this was his most consistent weapon on the night. With both of these breaking pitches, Gillespie has potential above average pitches that can be thrown to righties and lefties. The big question about Gillespie will be his fastball. While it may be good enough to succeed in Low-A right now, I do worry about his viability has a starter if It doesn’t improve.

Jack Cebert, RHP

Line: 7.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R (2 ER), 8 K, 0 BB, 2.45 ERA, 3.60 FIP

The only pitcher from the 2025 draft class to debut last summer, Jack Cebert was a prospect to keep an eye on heading towards to the 2026 season. Adding to the intrigue was Cebert’s spring breakout performance, when it made it clear that the Yankees would be moving Cebert from the bullpen to the starting rotation. At 24 years old, Cebert is clearly an advanced pitcher, with quiet, sound mechanics he is able to repeat. His ability to throw at strikes gives him a real leg up, especially given his strong pitch mix.

Cebert has 4 main pitches: Four-seam fastball, sinker, cutter, and slider. As you can see, he features the 3 fastballs that has been such a success for Cam Schlittler. While he doesn’t have the same velocity as Cam, sitting more in the low 90’s, he did dial his four-seam up to 95. The fastball was very successful at the top of the zone, where he was able to throw a lot strikes by hitting the top edge or inducing swing and miss. While he did have some good fastballs at the bottom of the zone, there were more misses down there.

While his fastball is the baseline, it is Cebert’s ability to create horizontal movement that makes him so intriguing. Starting with the sinker, this pitch gets incredible horizontal movement, working into the hands of righties and away from lefties. In the 3^rd inning, he had an impressive sinker that completely sawed off the bat of the Wilmington batter for an easy out. While most of the sinker’s were thrown to the arm side edge of the plate, he did have an impressive few that he started in the lefty batter box before breaking back to the edge of the plate. From this one outing, it is my favorite of his pitches.

While the sinker may have impressed me the most, his cutter/slider combo was still quite impressive. I include these two pitches together as they tunnel well with similar movement. The main difference is the cutter is thrown harder with more subtle glove side movement, whereas the slider has more ‘drop’ as you would see from a typical tight slider. This allows for some confusing movement for a batter to deal with when thrown in the same sequence. While a hanging slider was smacked for a home run, it was really the only major damage he conceded, as most of the other hits were hard-luck soft contact.

As mentioned, Cebert has really sound, repeatable mechanics. This allows all 4 pitches to tunnel well off the four-seam, before breaking to either side depending on which pitch is thrown. He is a real nightmare for batters, as seen by the high number of whiffs he induced. Cebert did throw a few changeups during the outing but would like to see this pitch featured slightly more to play off the sinker. It’s clear that Cebert is advanced for this level. If he continues this way, he should be in AA soon and contend for a top 10 spot in the system.

Garrett Martin, OF

Line: 18 AB, .278/.381/.556 150 wRC+, 5 H, 2 2B, 1 HR, 4 K, 2 BB, 1 SB, 1 CS

Garrett Martin had appeared to be more of a productive organizational filler than legit prospect after two seasons league average offensive performance. However, after receiving a lot of praise this spring from the organization, I decided it was only right to give Martin a more critical look.

A 25 year old UDFA, Martin has brought some good power, outfield defense, and swing and miss to the organization. Last year in AA Somerset, he had a 101 wRC+ with 14 home runs, striking out 24% of the time to only a 7% walk rate. Looking at what I saw this week, I was reasonably impressed. The first thing that stuck out to me was, for a player that has a healthy strikeout rate, Martin didn’t overly expand the zone. While he does like to chase the down and outside slider (something he was caught on multiple occasions), I didn’t see him chasing down too often, nor chasing the high fastball.

What Martin does best is swing aggressively in the zone. While there is zone contact issues that are somewhat upside limiting, it was refreshing to see a player unafraid to take his chances on pitches in the zone. While this did lead to getting on top of a few pitches for groundouts, he also was able to hit some balls deep into the outfield. While his home run off a hanging breaking ball was nice to watch, it was not the most impressive swing I saw. After working a 3-1 count, Martin got a pitch on the outside area of the zone and hammered it on a line to the left-center gap. If not for an incredible diving grab by the centerfielder, Martin would have had a bullet double.

Given his age, his zone contact issues, and not great walk rates, I’m not sure I see starter future for Martin. Still, Martin has a good understanding of and is willing to take aggressive hacks in the zone. With some further refinement, despite his age, I think there is a utility outfielder in this profile

Yanquiel Fernandez, OF

Line: 16 AB, .313/.333/.438 102 wRC+, 5 H, 2 2B, 0 HR, 3 K, 1 BB, 0 SB, 0 CS

One of the more heavily discussed additions to the farm system is Yanquiel Fernandez. A former top 100 prospect in the Colorado system, he was signed after his surprising release from the Rockies. Still only 23 years old, there is legitimate prospect status despite having made his MLB debut. After hitting 5 home runs during the first week and a half of MiLB action, I knew I had to take a look. Watching his at-bats this week, I saw a player with a lot to like, but with some very clear flaws.

Fernandez stands 6’2”, but every bit of his frame is maxed out. He swings the bat with authority, which has produced some of the best exit velocities in the minor leagues. His swing is also geared to pull the ball in the air. As stands, he has some of the best pull air rates in minor leagues. One of the first things I noticed after watching a few games was his proclivity to swing early in the count.  While I do admire a power hitter trying to take advantage of the early count, Fernandez was fooled on most of these early hacks. Of the first pitch swings I saw, most of them were swings and misses on breaking balls that were either chasing out of the zone, or he was way in front of the zone. Either way, he found himself behind in the count quite often. While Fernandez didn’t swing at too many obvious balls, he did a good job recognizing pitches well down or inside/outside, he is clearly not a player who will draw many walks due to his penchant to swing.

As mentioned, Fernandez is quite adept at hitting the ball in the air. This was quite apparent from the balls in play. Besides a couple of grounders to third base and a single he ripped between first and second, his batted balls were in the air. This included several liners, including a double down both the right field and left field lines. There were also several deep drives that took the outfielders to the warning track, including one drive that saw the centerfielder make an impressive catch on the run before slamming into the outfield wall.

While there was a fair amount of swing and miss, Fernandez only struck out a handful of times. While his K% isn’t too high, this is more so because of his constant swinging. As is, Fernandez chases too much. Like previously mentioned, Fernandez chased plenty on first pitch breaking balls to begin the at-bat, but there were several other chases, both on pitches inside, outside, and on top of the zone. The only area where he didn’t over-expand was the bottom of the zone.

Fernandez does resemble a sort of amateur version of Spencer Jones. He’s smaller and doesn’t hit the ball as hard, but makes more contact and is able to pull the ball more consistently. While not the greatest athlete, Fernandez does move well enough to patrol right field, especially with his very strong arm. Fernandez does seem like a project due to his subpar pitch recognition, but given he was a free agent pickup with his pedigree, I am very curious if the Yankees can add some refinement to his game. While the week of games I saw wasn’t his best, I don’t doubt his ability to demolish pitchers, though I hope he can start saving those first pitch hacks for fastballs.

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Every Prospect. Every Level. Every Day.