I had the fortunate opportunity to check out the new FCL Yankees team in breezy Dunedin, FL, the home of the beautiful Toronto Blue Jays complex. The Yankees got off to a loud start with a lead-off home run by top prospect Brando Mayea, but that was the extent of the score by the Baby Bombers. This is just a first impressions piece, and the scouting will be updated again towards the end of the season, so take that into consideration.
Note: The links on the players’ names will go to their respective at bats (if a batter) or outing (if a pitcher). Stats current as of 5/18/2025. YouTube video linked here, but as noted above, will have player links with particular starting points.
For what it’s worth, the story here should really be on the pitching more than the offense, despite the admittedly not great Blue Jays (they have had a poor farm system for quite a while) scoring 4 runs early in the game on Yankees starter, Jose Rodriguez. The bullpen truly looked stellar, especially Mariano Solomón, who picked up right where he left off last season.
Position Players
I think it’s fair to be frank here: OF Brando Mayea doesn’t belong in rookie ball and should have started with Low-A Tampa. Mayea is batting .293/.370/.512/.882 in 11 games so far this season, with 2 homers and 5 RBI. By comparison, Mayea had 9 RBI total last year in 35 games played and did not hit any home runs at all. The mechanics look roughly the same as last season with some minor tweaks. “Don’t fix it if it’s not broken”, as the saying goes.
Mayea’s defense is significantly ahead of what I saw of other international prospects, like Jasson Dominguez, as an example. Mayea’s routes are clean and well-executed, with minimal diversion from what he originally intended to execute.
HIT: 45 | RUN: 55 | FIELD: 60 | OVERALL: 55
We saw two rehabbers, Brennen Davis and Cam Eden. Davis looks like he belongs in AAA, if not in the Big Leagues, while Eden looks absolutely lost. Davis is slashing .474/.524/1.053/1.577 in 6 games and 19 AB, and comparatively Eden is batting.154/.154/.154./.308 in 4 games and 13 AB. For what it’s worth, Eden barely hit over the Mendoza line last year with Scranton and Buffalo (Yankees and Jays’ AAA teams, respectively).
OF Isael Arias has been a pleasant surprise early, especially after opening the season going 8-for-20 (.400) and 6 RBI, including a 5-game hit streak. I didn’t necessarily like what I saw in his defense, but obviously the offense speaks for itself. This was one of 3 games of the 9 he has played in this season where he had more than 1 AB where he went 0-for. The one thing that sticks out about Arias is how he handled a fly ball at the LF wall that should have been an easy out. Instead, he lost the ball and just stuck his glove out, hoping for the best.
HIT: 45 | RUN: 60 | FIELD: 45 | OVERALL: 50
C Ediel Rivera is yet another incredibly talented catcher part of their repertoire that the Yankees signed last year as part of the MLB Draft (he was a UDFA). Puerto Rico isn’t necessarily a hot bed of talent compared to the Dominican Republic or Venezuela, but remember that some of the best catchers in MLB history came from Puerto Rico: Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, Yadier Molina, and of course, Jorge Posada, just to name a few.
Rivera broke out in a loud way last year in fall instructs, but that has tempered a bit with a new coaching staff and as they manage to get more consistency out of his bat. Rivera started off with a 3-game hit streak (3-for-10) but has since cooled down quickly, gathering only 1 hit in the past 15 at-bats (5 games). The mechanics remind me a little of Somerset catcher Rafael Flores. I see a lot of similarities between the two.
HIT: 45 | RUN: 55 | FIELD: 50 | OVERALL: 50
Josue Contreras is a utility 1B/C who played first base in this game. He definitely has the body of a catcher (stockier build), especially when compared to that of Rivera, but that means that Contreras has the ability to actually take on more muscle. I didn’t get to see Contreras hit, run or field much, so I’ll have to reserve judgment until a later date. I will say that the mechanics and build make it seem like down the road, he could be a power hitter. He has a high, long leg kick, transferring a lot of his drive to his back foot, and he has a long, effortless swing that could land a lot of balls into the LF porch in Yankee Stadium some day.
HIT: 45 | RUN: 55 | FIELD: 50 | OVERALL: 50 (this will have to be re-visited later in the season)
SS Dexters Peralta is, at first glance, a better overall prospect than Roderick Arias. That’s a loaded statement, I know, but Arias hadn’t been performing well up until when he landed on the IL, and Peralta looks more agile and assured on his feet in the field. Peralta’s stance has him standing across the box from the SW corner of the batter’s box on his back foot, to nearly the NE corner of the box on his front foot. The long levered, skinny, lefty batter has a lot of room to grow, and the next few weeks will be interesting to follow given how well last season went for him.
HIT: 50 | RUN: 60 | FIELD: 50 | OVERALL: 50 (this will have to be re-visited later in the season)
INF Santiago Gómez is around for yet another FCL season, as he’s blocked by a stagnant Low-A Tarpons infield (similar to the situation with Mayea). Gómez plays more on the left side of the field, but he fits best in the little I’ve seen him over at 2B; he played 3B in this game. Gómez can really get a hold of the ball at times, and is more Jeter-esque in regard to his approach at offense. He doesn’t really drive the ball for power, although he can. He is more of a line drive hitter with a “get-em-on, get-em-in” approach.
Looking at his fielding stats, it seems the FCL Yankees coaching staff are trying different things with him, with Gómez having spent some time in LF. Primarily, however, Gómez is becoming more of a third baseman, and he has the arm for it, too.
HIT: 50 | RUN: 70 | FIELD: 55 | OVERALL: 50
Pitchers
RHP Jose M. Rodriguez started this game and was rocky in parts, but overall had a decent outing. Rodriguez is more of a fly ball pitcher; I suspect that’s because he was fastball heavy in this outing. Rodriguez has a decent, but not great slider, which he had trouble locating. The curveball was what induced the most whiffs, but still was not a typical 12-6 curve. It’s possible the curve is instead a change-up that has decent break. The heater was actually what induced the most whiffs because it had late sink. Rodriguez had some trouble controlling pitches, but every so often were some perfectly located gems.
2025 may prove to be a significant year for Rodriguez because he missed all of 2024 due to injury.
SI: 95-96 | SL: 86 | CB: 81
RHP Jose Martinez is probably the second most chill pitcher in the Yankees system behind LHP Edgar Barclay. The two pitchers have a lot in common, in that neither have a lot of velo, and that they both throw Frisbee sweepers. Martinez was originally signed by the Red Sox in 2023, and spent the previous two seasons in the DSL with that organization, until he was released this past February. The Yankees signed him in April, and this game was his organizational debut. Martinez struck out 4 of the 6 batters faced in this outing.
Martinez threw a 3.48 ERA in 41-1/3 innings, where he pitched all but 4 games in relief. His mechanics and lower pitch speeds translate to better utilization as a reliever, but who knows what the Yankees have in store for him, especially considering Barclay had seen mixed time lately (before he landed on the IL needing “Tommy John” surgery) as both starter and reliever. Martinez is likely the sleeper of the pitching staff considering the numbers he had with Boston: 10 K/9 average and a sub-2 BB/9, both considered excellent to elite stuff.
FB: 91-92 | SW: 84 | CH: 78
RHP Mariano Salomon is the pitcher I didn’t know I was looking forward to seeing, and my goodness, is his stuff electric! The curveball is textbook, as is the sinker, but the slider has a much softer break than you may expect for a “traditional” slider (is anything traditional anymore?). Salomon tended to throw his sinkers in the dirt, intentionally or otherwise. It’s possible that he’s been working on that pitch with the coaches in Tampa and doesn’t realize how much vertical break it’ll have.
His control is iffy at best, as it is usually with prospects at this stage. The velo has some room to grow, like Martinez, but I would rather see that he nails the command & control of his pitches than throw 95 MPH and not know where the ball is going. I think the next year or so will be huge for Salomon’s development.
SI: 88-91 | SL: 84-86 | CB: 77-78
LHP Franyer Herrera threw what appeared as an odd mix of almost an even split of four-seamers and sliders with the occasional change-up, when the change-up is a much better off-speed pitch than the slider. The fastball showed some late rise, which we saw when he was hitting the higher end of his range. The slider cuts away from the throwing arm and into the righty’s batter’s box, while the change is just a soft curveball in a way. Herrera was the most refined of the pitchers, but still had command issues. He seemed to know where he wanted to place the pitches, and most of them landed like he wanted, but there’s still lots to work on. Case in point: he faced 3 hitters and struck out 2 of them.
FB: 93-95 | SL: 84 | CH: 78
LHP Jose Ledesma closed things out for the Yankees with a brief 0.2 IP outing just like Herrera. While like Herrera he faced 3 batters, he didn’t strike any of them out. Ledesma has a side-arm release point that’s got a touch of submariner in there. Ledesma was catching decent speeds on his four-seamers, but they didn’t have as much rise as that of Herrera. Ledesma’s stats are better overall than most of the other relievers. He threw a 1.25 ERA in 21-2/3 innings last year with the DSL NYY Bombers, and had a .139 opposing batting average.
FB: 95-96 | SL: 86 | CB: 81
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