Yanks prospect Vasquez showing ‘special arm’ in Somerset
As in the case with many young pitching prospects, there is uncertainty over whether Randy Vasquez will ultimately be best suited as a starter or a reliever for the Yankees.
The 23-year-old, some scouts believe, will be the latter because he has a slender frame (6-foot, 165 pounds) and at times has struggled to command his excellent stuff.
Somerset Patriots manager Dan Fiorito has no doubt that the organization’s 15th-ranked prospect has higher upside.
“I hope he keeps starting for us. I mean, that’s for sure,” Fiorito said this week. “He’s an electric arm … he has three plus pitches. The secondary he’s got a really good feel for, and he has the command. For me, he’s every bit of a starter in the big leagues. So, he’s just going to go out there and keep competing and we’ll see where the process kind of leads him.”
After getting a taste of Double-A last year (4.22 ERA, 1.40 WHIP in four starts), Vasquez has had much better results in 2022.
Vasquez has allowed only four earned runs in 19.1 innings through his first five starts. The right-hander tossed 5.2 no-hit innings with five strikeouts and two walks last Friday at Altoona, earning him the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week award.
Signed by the Yankees out of the Dominican Republic on May 21, 2018, Vasquez is armed with a mid-90s fourseam fastball, a two-seam that runs in on hitters, a changeup, a slider and a power curveball that consistently tops a spin rate of 3,100 rpm, according to MLB Pipeline.
Fiorito says confidence in all his secondary pitches is what makes Vasquez so lethal.
“I love his pitches, the way they work off of one another,” Fiorito said. “He was dominating (last Friday) and working fast. His curveball spin rate is through the roof. He’s got a really good changeup, and he’s able to throw all of his pitches for strikes. I think that’s something that at such a young age and also being in Double-A, to have three pitches that are all above average and you can have command of
them is what makes him so special.”
The jury is still out on Vasquez’s command when you consider that his walk percentage (14.9 percent this year) has regressed to a poor rate after taking a big step forward in 2021 (5.5 percent at High-A Tampa and 7.2 percent in Somerset).
But it’s also too early to judge in small samples, especially so early in his career. And Vasquez has yet to throw 70 pitches in any start this season since he is still building up his arm strength because of the reduced spring training caused by the lockout.
Still, the early returns are positive overall. Vasquez is showing why the Yankees refused to part ways with him when they traded for slugger Joey Gallo last July, and the organization will undoubtedly be keeping a watchful eye on the Dominican this summer.
“The curveball, the sweep that he’s able to create on that, it makes him different,” Fiorito said. “He’s able to do all that with his secondary pitches and his fastball. It makes him a special arm.”