The New York Yankees’ Florida Complex League affiliate hosted the Philadelphia Phillies' Florida Complex League affiliate for a 10 am start on July 4th. It was a warm and sticky one as per usual this time of year in Florida, but because of exceptional pitching by Lange and Rodriguez with a total of 13 combined strikeouts and 1 total earned run, the game moved along well for a time of game of 2:49.
Florida Complex League (FCL) Yankees
The Yankees are my “home” team, so I’m much more familiar with this team than others and I’ll have much more to say about them than any other that I’ll cover in the FCL. That said, I will try to remain as neutral and unbiased as possible to provide as fair of coverage as I can.
RHP Justin Lange (NYY)
3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
Right-hander Justin Lange started for the Yankees as per usual in this rotation and for at least the second time in a row, he pitched exceptionally. Lange’s off-speed had lots of movement that sat upper 80s, and his fastball was unhittable despite sitting 91-92. Lange’s control isn’t the best though, and that is his greatest weakness at this point.
For those who may recognize the name but not remember from where, Lange was the return the Yankees got when they traded Luke Voit to San Diego. Lange is returning from a knee injury of some sort. I didn’t notice any issues upon foot plant/ leg block or grimacing the past few times I’ve seen Lange, but he has a bit of a shorter leash than other pitchers, depending on what the pitch count they have set for him.
Last time out, it was about 62 pitches. Lange went 72 pitches this outing. The fact that he maintained two consecutive weeks of no-run ball with a pitch count increase is impressive.
My “should be on your radar” pitching prospect pick
RHP Osiel Rodríguez (NYY)
4 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
There has been a lot of excitement to get eyes on Osiel stateside, and I’m glad I’m finally getting to see the fellow Cuban myself. Rodriguez induces plenty of whiffs which leads to strikeouts (12.8 K/9 after this outing), especially with the 4-seam heater he’s been working on. He can touch 95 and he can throw it up and in, but usually has it sitting around 92-94. Rodriguez also has a sinker that he throws at around 89-91.
He likes catching batters with an outside pitch (usually his sinker), as seen in this video showing all 6 strikeouts. Rodriguez’s control is much more impressive than others I’ve seen at this level or even of what I’ve seen “across the street” in the next level up, Single-A, and the fact that he can graze the strike zone so precisely is impressive to see at this stage in his career.
The Yankees are slowly upping Rodriguez’s pitch and inning counts, so it seems like they’re grooming him to be a starter. As he stands now, I can see him being either a back-of-the-rotation starter or long reliever, but it’s so early in his career that can easily change.
C/DH Agustin Ramirez (NYY)
1-for-5, 1 R, 3 RBI, 1 HR, K, SB
Ramirez had possibly the hottest first week I’ve ever seen out of any prospect. Ramirez went 8 straight games to start off the season on a hitting streak and hit 3 home runs in that time.
Ramirez hit one of the loudest homeruns you’ll ever hear to left field for a 3-run home run in the 2nd inning to get the scoring started for the Yankees. I still don’t think it has landed. He’s shown this year what his power has looked like, and this homer is proof of that.
Ramirez’s issue is inconsistency at the plate, but I won’t necessarily put full blame on him. He has decent plate discipline for an international player but swinging at the first pitch like he did in the 8th inning in this game which resulted in a double play is frustrating to watch. When he works a count, he can hit home runs like he did in the first inning.
SS Dayro Perez (NYY)
2-for-4, 2B, 3 R, 3 RBI, BB, K
Perez has been tremendously impressive every time I catch an FSL Yankees game and has been consistent at the plate as well. As with most international players that just need more experience, Perez has some plate discipline issues. But when he gets a hold of one, he makes you pay. If I had to scout him on hitting, I’d give him a 50, but he’s still raw talent so the potential is there for that to increase.
I timed him at about 4:35 from home to 1st as RHB, giving him about a 50 (being generous because it doesn’t look like he ran full speed in this opportunity).
Perez’s biggest issue, even if he’s an incredible prospect, is that he has a huge hill to climb given the SS prospect names in the system that are ahead of him. Going up the ladder: Vargas, Sweeney, Volpe, and Peraza are all in his way of getting to the Bronx, with Volpe being the top prospect of the bunch. That said, Perez makes a lot of errors. He didn’t make any in this game, but I’ve seen them before, and they’ve been simple errors like a missed ground ball. He currently holds about a .790 fielding percentage. Not ideal given the list of prospects ahead of him. He still made quite a close play tagging Jordan Viars, seen in the photo above, and saved a ball from sailing into the outfield.
My “should be on your radar” position player pick:
2B Jared Serna (NYY)
1-for-3, 3B, R, RBI, BB, K, CS
I love watching Serna’s athleticism on the field. His bat and his speed are so much fun to watch, and both came into play when he hit a zinger to left center which he turned into a triple. Serna has better plate discipline than many other international players.
This may be because he’s spent some time playing with the Charros de Jalisco, a team in the Mexican Pacific League where he was teammates with former Blue Jays pitcher Roberto Osuna and former Yankees pitching prospect Manny Barreda.
The Yankees have good middle infield depth, but I can see Serna converted to an OF given his speed. I haven’t seen his arm shown off too much, but his agility in turning plays has been a lot of fun to watch.
Serna is frequently pushing the opponents like this, causing them to bobble the ball and sometimes affording him an extra base. Serna ran about 4:30 seconds from home to first as RHB in this AB, which places him at about 70-speed. I would give his hit ability a 60 expecting that his stats will settle down a little.
Florida Complex League (FCL) Phillies
Like Clearwater who I saw in my previous Live Looks, the FCL Phillies team had a few rehabbing players. In this game, I saw Gunnar Mayer who I’ll discuss shortly.
RHP Gunner Mayer (PHI)
3 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Mayer is with the FCL squad on rehab but could just as well be with High-A Jersey Shore with as good as he looked, honestly. I don’t expect he’ll get promoted just yet given the limited number of innings he has in Single-A so far; just under 40 innings between this season and last season. Mayer was also somewhat injury prone last year as well it seems looking at his transaction history.
All that said, Mayer made the Yankees batters look silly. He is easily the best and most dominant looking pitcher I have seen in the Phillies organization between this FCL team and the Single-A Threshers. That may come as a surprise to those that follow the system given his history, but his command was on point in this game.
Mayer faced 12 batters: struck out 5 of them (so a K % of 42%), walked 2, 2 grounded out, 1 flied out, 1 lined out and 1 reached on a fielding error in about 30 pitches.
My “should be on your radar” pitching prospect pick:
RHP DJ Jefferson (PHI)
0.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
My first experience with Jefferson, a UDFA signed by the Phillies in 2019, was last season against the FCL Yankees, where he had an awful outing, but I could still see that his stuff showed some promise. I still see that promise, even though his stats may not necessarily show that.
DJ, as his teammates refer to him, is a victim of low inning outings in a sense, to where if he doesn’t perform almost immaculately in every outing, his stats suffer. As an example, Jefferson pitched 3.2 innings before allowing any runs, then in one inning allowed 2 runs which instantly gave him an ERA of 3.86.
Jefferson had some issues in this outing, issuing an instant RBI double, a wild pitch and an RBI single to the Yankees, but a GIDP got him out of trouble. I think the Phillies can work with Jefferson if they move him out of the short outing closer role. I think moving Jefferson to a “setup man” role would suit his talents better.
OF Jordan Viars (PHI)
3-for-4, 0 R, 0 RBI, 0 BB
Every lineup has some kind of standout player in some fashion, and Viars is it for the FCL Phillies. Viars fell victim to what I feel was a poorly scored game here in that he helped get an RBI, but they didn’t give him the run scored. Viars hit a ground ball single between the first and second basemen into right field, driving in a run from second base, but wasn’t credited with driving in that run. Either way, he’s that kind of hitter from what I’ve seen of him.
I didn’t get enough of a look at Viars, in regards to his defense for a good overall analysis, but I’ll get a few good looks at him over the coming weeks so I’ll have to follow-up with more on him later in the season.
My “should be on your radar” position player pick:
OF Ricardo Rosario (PHI)
2-for-4, 0 R, 0 RBI, 0 BB
Rosario is an intriguing prospect. He didn’t show a ton of power in this game, and he didn’t get any hits off the Yankees previously but making contact half the time in a game at a young age is a good start. Like Viars, I didn’t get a good look at him defensively, but I should over the coming weeks. I expect he will stick around in FCL for a little while after recently being promoted from DSL.