Fowler ball
Young outfielder showing Yankees have more talent waiting on farm
The fact the Yankees’ infusion of youth is thriving comes only second-hand to a prospect yearning to be included in that group. Dustin Fowler, wreaking havoc atop the lineup at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, has heard the parent program is doing well. Hasn’t seen it, though. “I don’t watch baseball after being at t he f i el d al l day,” t he 22-year-old center fielder said over the phone this week. “I’m pretty worn out by my day.” It is fitting, though. A player the Yankees praise as unassuming won’t even pick his head up long enough to watch the team he has dreamt of playing for. Fowler, much faster with his legs than his speech, carries a southern drawl from growing up in Georgia. He can look to his right and see Clint Frazier — a shock of red hair that exemplifies the boisterous, polarizing personality. He can look to his shortstop, Tyler Wade, who speculates about winning a World Series with the Yankees this year, part of the next batch of Baby Bombers. Or he can keep his head down, which is the only way Fowler knows. Fowler is not the Yankees’ top youngster — he was shut out of this year’s top100 rankings for all major league prospects, and Baseball America rated him the team’s ninth-best prospect — but his value is growing. In his first 29 games this season, the stat-stuffer posted a .293/.341/.537 slash line, with four home runs, four steals and six triples. The six triples are eye-opening but not stunning: He set the Double-A Trenton record last year with 15.
Besides, the biggest number for Fowler is nine, as in his walk total. The Yankees are asking him to be more selective with his eye, after reaching via walk just 22 times in 132 games last season, and his on-base percentage is rising as he rises through the system.
“As with most hitters, when they learn to be more disciplined at the pitches they swing at and they develop physically and gain experience, you see power start to come around,” said Gary Denbo, the Yankees’ vice president of player development, about Fowler, who hit a careerhigh 12 homers last year. “With his added strength and experience and knowledge of the strike zone, we’re starting to see the results of his work in concentrating to be a more disciplined hitter.”
Fowler, 6-feet, 190 pounds, is molded in the shape of Brett Gardner, a comparison he leans into. And like Gardner, who gradually climbed the Yankees’ minor league ladder without much fanfare, Fowler doesn’t lug the can’t-miss hype on his shoulders.
He is part of a mess of a talented group of Yankees outfielders, headlined by Frazier (warming up after a cool start to his season) and complemented by 2016 firstrounder Blake Rutherford (hammering Single-A competition). And that is after Aaron Judge has taken The Bronx by storm, and with Gardner and Jacoby Ells- bury showing they’re not finished yet. Fowler was an 18th-round pick in 2013 out of high school whose glove had to be developed. “I’m a guy who’s going to do everything I can to win ball games,” Fowler said. “I’m going to sacrifice myself if I need to. I’m going to dive and catch the ball, run into the wall if I need to. I try to steal bases if I can, do everything I can to help my team win.” On April 30, that meant hitting for a cycle, clinched by blasting a walk-off homer. Other days, helping his team win may entail a highlight-reel catch, for which Fowler has become known.
The Yankees do not have to strain their eyes to see him manning their center field.
“We think he has the potential to be an everyday major league center fielder,” Denbo said. “He has plus-range in the outfield. His routes are very good, the jumps he has on balls.”
Fowler’s potential competition is right beside him — “It’s cool having another Georgia guy,” he said of Frazier — and the fans’ eyes shift more to the brash right fielder than the center fielder. But Denbo said he believes Fowler’s time is coming.
“I think [Fowler has] already separated himself,” Denbo said, “and he’s one of our top prospects in the middle of the field. Those are rare finds, the guys that can play in the middle of the field and play championship caliber, as we believe he will. Those guys are difficult to find.”
The Yankees’ heads are up.