Yankees Prospects: Final week 2022 minor league review

The minor league season has come to close, and the Yankees organization finished it out with a championship at the Double-A level. The Somerset Patriots joined the Yankees’ Florida Complex League team in winning their league this season. Overall, the Yankees’ stateside minor league teams finished the season 431-341. Only the Low-A Tampa Tarpons finished below .500 overall, but even they had a strong second half where the team finished only a few games out of the playoffs. Let’s take a look at the last week of action for the minor league season.

Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre RailRiders

Record: 83-67; Second place in the International League (East), 3.0 GB

Past Week: 2-2 vs. Buffalo Bison

The RailRiders finished 64-33 (.660 winning percentage) after bottoming out at 19-34 on June 7th. It’s a testament to this comeback that the team briefly overtook Durham for a half-game lead at one point, but despite continuing to play well, the Bulls pulled back ahead in the division and earned the division crown.

The strong second half was powered by names very familiar to Yankees fans now: Oswaldo Cabrera, Oswald Peraza, Estevan Florial, and Anthony Volpe. Josh Norris of Baseball America reported that Volpe is the only minor league player in baseball to have hit 35 doubles and 20 home runs while stealing 40 bases on the season. Beyond the big names, a number of other players had strong campaigns. Matt Krook had an amazing stretch earlier this season where he retired 42 consecutive batters across three outings, and he set a new single-season strikeout record for Scranton. Deivi García rebounded from a rough start to the season and seemed to find himself again working in a bullpen role. Armando Alvarez had a breakout second half of the season as well.

Players of Note:

Anthony Volpe: 102 G; .271/.359/.498, 17 HR, 4 3B, 32 2B, 36 SB (Double-A and Triple-A)

Estevan Florial: 101 G; .283/.368/.481, 15 HR, 2 3B, 31 2B, 39 SB

Matt Krook: 17 G; 3.20 ERA, 84.1 IP, 59 H, 43 BB, .197 BAA

Armando Alvarez: 64 G; .314/.356/.572, 14 HR, 17 2B

Deivi García: 8 G; 4.09 ERA, 22 IP, 11 H, 9 BB, 31 K

Double-A Somerset Patriots

Overall Record: 83-53; Eastern League Champions (Best Regular Season Record in the Eastern League)

Eastern League Championship Series: 2-1 vs. Erie SeaWolves (Pirates)

Double-A Somerset returned home on Tuesday evening with their season on the line, down 0-1 in a best-of-three series. The Patriots then outscored Erie 24-2 over the next two games, including an incredible 15-0 no-hitter in the deciding game that left little doubt to the outcome after a nine-run first inning.

Starting pitcher Randy Vasquez was only a seventh-inning walk away from perfection over eight before Carson Coleman closed the season out. Jasson Domínguez improved as the year progressed, ascending from Low-A all the way up to Double-A for the final two weeks; he finished the season with 7 homers in his last 12 games. That includes two games where he hit home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game. He was far from alone in the onslaught, as Andres Chaparro and others continued to put up big numbers for the team. Congratulations to Somerset on an excellent first year in the Yankees’ organization.

Players of Note:

Jasson Domínguez: 94 G; .296/.415/.519, 16 HR, 7 3B, 14 2B, 33 SB

Austin Wells: 56 G; .282/.382/.519, 13 HR, 1 3B, 10 2B, 8 SB

Andres Chaparro: 39 G; .329/.411/.658, 12 HR, 12 2B

Will Warren: 18 G; 4.02 ERA, 94 IP, 89 H, 33 BB, 83 K

Yoendrys Gomez: 10 G; 1.93 ERA, 28 IP, 20 H, 12 BB, 27 K

Randy Vasquez: 25 G; 3.90 ERA, 115.1 IP, 106 H, 41 BB, 120 K

With the end of the minor league season, I’m also announcing that this will be my final article for Pinstripe Alley. I’d like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read one of my articles over the past three and half years. Hopefully* I was able provide the type of Yankees minor league and occasional major league coverage that you sought when you stopped by Pinstripe Alley. I’ve always enjoyed following the minor league side of the game and that will never change. It has been a great time having an outlet for my thoughts and ideas, and I’m sure I’ll be around in the comments section.

I’d also like to thank all my fellow writers and the editors on this site, as it has been an honor to follow your work and interact with all of you behind the scenes; believe me, they are truly doing it out of passion for the Yankees and the sport of baseball. A special thanks to my family, who have supported and encouraged me throughout my time with Pinstripe Alley. I could not have done it without them.

*Editor’s note: Dan is being quite modest here with the word “hopefully.” As Jake put it perfectly to him yesterday, there’s no one who has done a better job covering Yankees prospects the last few years than Dan. He’s a terrific guy and we’ll miss him. Best of luck to him!