‘It’s definitely a trend’
Righty Jack Neely, at 6-foot-8, the latest tall pitcher Yankees are developing
BRIDGEWATER — Jack Neely was always eight inches taller than everybody.
Or at least that’s what he estimates was the case as a kid in southern Texas whenever he visited the doctor and saw how he stacked up to others his age on the average height charts.
“I was a string bean at the time when I was young growing up,” the 23-year-old Neely jokes.
By freshman year of high school, he was already 6-foot5. He kept growing and growing, eventually rounding into an imposing 6-foot-8 right-hander who has become the latest in a recent run of Yankees minor league pitchers who are uniquely tall.
Neely, rated by MLB Pipeline as the Yankees’ No. 25 prospect, is one of six pitchers who stands 6-foot-6 or taller while currently playing with the Double-A Somerset Patriots.
“It’s definitely a trend it seems like,” Neely said this week at Somerset’s TD Bank Ballpark. “The Yankees, they’re able to develop just about anyone.”
It’s natural to wonder if Neely once had a path in basketball, and that was indeed a sport he loved playing for four years at Winston Churchill High School in San Antonio. But he describes baseball as his main love from the time he was seven years old, and he found his calling in life when his high school team assigned him to exclusively be a pitcher.
Despite struggling in two seasons of college ball at Texas and Ohio State with a 7.76 ERA in 20 appearances — half as a starter and half as a reliever — the Yankees saw high potential because of his velocity and frame, so they made him an 11th-round pick in the 2021 draft.
All he’s done since entering pro ball is flourish as a reliever with a 2.63 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and 201 strikeouts in 123.1 innings at Low-A, High-A and Double-A.
“To see his maturation from a delivery standpoint to be able to lock himself into the (strike) zone a little bit more, which has been a huge thing for him … and having the devastating slider that has does, man, it’s a special arm, special kid,” said Somerset pitching coach Brett DeGagne, who also worked with Neely in Tampa after the 2021 draft. “Just seeing him grow up and mature and move through the system, have as much success as he has is super exciting for us as an organization and him personally.”
Neely doesn’t need to finesse or outsmart hitters with pitch sequencing as he attacks them with just two pitches: an upper90s fastball complemented by a mid-80s slider with a shape that he says has become “a lot smaller” and “a lot tighter” since college.
“I would never have been able to get it to the level it’s at without the help of (the Yankees),” Neely said. “It’s a different pitch, but it plays well.”
DeGagne says that the Yankees have been identifying pitchers with bigger statures who can produce force and velocity while being durable in today’s ever-evolving game. The tallest arm on the Yankees’ current roster is 6-foot-5 Clay Holmes.
“Our scouting department has done an incredible job of getting us really good pitchers,” said DeGagne, a former 6-foot-5 college pitcher. “We’ll take them however they come. That’s one thing you can’t teach is the size piece … and it’s polarizing because when I go out to the mound now, a lot of times I’m looking up, and that doesn’t happen very often for me to try to catch their eyes. We’re super excited about this group, and it just so happens to be a bunch of big dudes.”
Somerset has also been grooming lanky arms such as 6-foot-7 right-handed reliever Danny Watson — the Yankees’ No. 28 prospect — and 6-foot-8 right-hander Bailey Dees, who converted from a reliever to a starter this year.
Neely has formed close bonds with both teammates and will often bounce ideas off them to improve his mentality on the mound.
A common theme for taller pitchers is their ability to create unique angles and extensions within their deliveries.
“It definitely makes things a little bit easier,” Neely said. “There’s definitely a deception factor there and it seems like the ball can probably get on you a little bit faster. But you do have to get all that in sync at the same time.”
With such a high walk rate in college — 6.7 per nine innings — Neely had to simplify his mechanics in pro ball to be able to pound the zone more. Yankees coaches helped him harness his frame and lower his walk rate from 4.6 in 2022 to 2.7 in 2023. Now it’s a matter of staying consistent and making subtle tweaks along the journey to the majors.
Neely has yet to hit a significant rough patch since being promoted to Double-A last August, as he hasn’t allowed an earned run in 12 of his 15 outings including the postseason.
“A lot of that has to do with the preparation,” Neely said. “It only gets harder as you go up obviously, and so a lot of that is just understanding who I am, how I pitch and then how I can use my strengths against the hitters. And from there it’s just, you have to go and execute it. If you execute your plan from what you know to do, you should be alright.”
He maintains that levelheaded approach as he chases an opportunity to boost the Yankees’ bullpen, which could come later this season.
“Of course I want to get there as soon as possible. But at the same time, it’s the game of keeping your feet right where you are and just understanding that there’s a development path,” Neely said. “I’m just enjoying the ride, man. You get to build a lot of cool relationships with a lot of great guys in the minor leagues, and just knowing that it’s a grind. It is for everybody.”
Growing up in San Antonio, Neely admired how legendary Texas pitchers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens would go right after hitters. But his favorite to watch was former Yankees All-Star pitcher Andrew Miller — another tall, two-pitch reliever, albeit from the left side.
There’s nothing that Neely wants more than to make that type of impact in high-leverage situations with the Yankees. And based on his minor-league trajectory, the string bean certainly has the potential to be the next bullpen gem from the organization’s farm system.
“I love being a late-inning guy,” Neely said. “There’s nothing better than having all that adrenaline with the game on the line, getting in to go and get the job done. I think I was always kind of meant to be a reliever.”