TAKE A CHANGE
TAMPA — The Yankees’ minor league complex — “across the street,” as they say here, since it indeed stands across the street from George M. Steinbrenner Field — overflows with young talent nowadays. More will be coming once blue-chippers such as Gleyber Torres and Clint Frazier get cut from the big-league squad.
Gary Denbo, the Yankees’ vice president of player development, sat on a bleacher seat Friday night and oversaw his impressive kingdom, put together by scouts and coaches and minor league managers, all of whom are overseen by general manager Brian Cashman. Offense was Denbo’s bag until he took over this job in 2015. He earned a reputation as Derek Jeter’s swing whisperer and worked as the Yankees’ hitting coach in 2001, among many other gigs. Yet he knows what butters his bread nowadays.
“Our biggest goal in player development is to develop starting pitchers,” Denbo said.
That explains how a college reliever in Texas turned into a professional starter in Trenton, for now, with more upward mobility desired. It serves as the underlying premise for Chance Adams’ origin story.
“It’s a little different. It’s been really fun,” Adams said recently at The George, before the Yankees reassigned him across the street. “The coaches have really helped me. It’s not like they just threw me in there and said, ‘Here, go start.’ They built me up for it. They did the necessary precautions. They’ve been kind of easy.”
“We got together as a group and decided that we’re going to take our bets arms and put them in the starting rotation,” Denbo said. “We saw that Chance had three pitches that had a chance to be average or plus.”
About that name, since Denbo used it twice in one sentence? Adams shrugged with a smile and said his parents “had two name choices and they went with this one,” over Keegan. Fast-forward the Arizona native’s tale to Yavapai Junior College in Prescott, Ariz., then Dallas Baptist University, where his fastball soared from the 90-93 mph range to 93-97 in one season.
“At Dallas Baptist, they did a lot of heavy squats,” Adams said, in offering his theory for his escalation. “We didn’t run unless we were in trouble. A lot of heavy lifting. Also weighted balls. I still do that. I guess maturing a little, too.”
Yankees vice president of domestic amateur scouting Damon Oppenheimer, acting on the recommendations of area scout Mike Leuzinger and cross-checker Brian Barber, liked what he saw of Adams on video and popped him in the fifth round of the 2015 amateur draft. Adams had thrown in 23 games for Dallas Baptist, all in relief, totaling 59 innings, and struck out 83 while walking 13 (thanks, The Baseball Cube). After signing for a $330,000 bonus, he began his professional career by pitching out of the bullpen. That changed in the 2015-16 offseason. “We saw that Chance had three pitches [fastball, slider and changeup] that had a chance to be average or plus,” Denbo said. “And our pitching coordinator Danny Borrell mentioned that he does a great job with repeating his delivery. He’s able to not only have good control, but good command of his pitches. We simply put all of those things together and decided to put him in the rotation to see how it worked.
“We were watching to see to make sure he maintained his velocity after the first few innings and he did that. …The rest of it, he took the bull by the horns and he ran with it.”
Adams’ .169 opponents’ batting average over 25 starts (127 ¹/3 innings) last year, as he split time between Single-A Tampa and Double-A Trenton ranked as the best among qualified pitchers in organized ball, according to Baseball America (which ranked Adams as the eighth-best Yankees prospect). He has joined James Kaprielian and Justus Sheffield as the Yankees’ starting pitching prospects most likely to succeed. Striking out five and walking six in his three Grapefruit League outings, totaling four innings, shows he is both unfinished and intriguing.
“Whatever they want to do with me, I’m happy,” Adams said. Nothing makes any team happier than developing a starting pitcher.