Yankees Top 10 Prospects – December 2025

The offseason is in full swing and the Winter Meetings are about to begin, so it’s time to take another look at the Yankees farm system and consider a new ranking of Baby Bombers on the rise within the organization. There was a lot of movement in 2025, as a few arms made huge strides to fly up the ranks and a flurry of deadline deals saw more than a dozen prospects shipped out to other teams.

With the dust settled, here’s the Pinstripe Alley rundown of the top 10 Yankees prospects, including my own thoughts on each player.

1. George Lombard Jr. – Despite an extended adjustment period after getting the call to Double-A Somerset just before his 20th birthday, there is no prospect in the Yankees system with a more well-rounded skillset or more enticing blend of floor and upside than George Lombard Jr. Since being selected in the first round of the 2023 MLB Draft, Lombard has proved himself at every level on both sides of the ball and projects as a star big-league shortstop. He started last season in High-A and quickly proved himself to be far too good for the level, posting a 194 wRC+ in 24 games before earning a promotion. Lombard struggled against Double-A pitching to start, but acclimated to the new environment over time and finished with respectable numbers, including eight home runs, 24 steals, a 13.6-percent walk rate, and a 111 wRC+. It was not quite the meteoric rise fans were hoping to see from their top prospect, but Lombard is right on schedule and could earn the starting shortstop job in the Bronx as early as 2027.

2. Spencer Jones – The Yankees’ first-round draft pick from 2022 is the most divisive prospect in the organization, but he had more success in 2025 than anyone in the system. Jones bounced back from a disappointing 2024 and revived his reputation with a season that wasn’t quite like anything we’ve seen before. He started the season repeating Double-A after spending all of last year with the Patriots, where he struck out far too much and wasn’t able to access his massive raw power as often as he should have. This year was a different story. Jones clobbered 16 home runs with Somerset, just one below last year’s season total in 336 trips to the plate. His walk rate jumped from 9.9 percent to 15.4 percent, his ISO went from .193 to .320, and his wRC+ ballooned to 184. In his first 114 PA after a promotion to Triple-A, Jones was hitting .375/.439/.844 with 13 home runs, 10 steals, a 219 wRC+, and just a 24-percent strikeout rate, before regressing in the season’s final weeks. Jones might never make enough contact to become a true superstar at the highest level, but he should make his MLB debut in 2026. With a profile like his, we’ll just have to see it to believe it.

3. Elmer Rodríguez – No pitcher succeeded quite as consistently across as many levels in 2025 as Elmer Rodríguez (stylized as Elmer Rodríguez-Cruz until very recently). The former Red Sox farmhand established himself as a Top 100 prospect with New York after a breakout 2025 which began in High-A Hudson Valley and ended with the 22-year-old making his Triple-A debut. Rodríguez recorded a 2.26 ERA in 83 innings in High-A with a 29-percent strikeout rate, and was just as good in Double-A with a 2.64 ERA in 61 innings. He missed just as many bats in Somerset with a 30.3-percent strikeout rate, but he’s also seen his walk rate go from 10.9 percent to 8.2 percent. In total, Rodríguez recorded a 2.58 ERA on the season in 150 innings (by far his career high). There’s no clearer indication that the Yankees think the world of him than the aggressive late-season promotion to Triple-A, where he’ll almost certainly begin the 2026 campaign. Rodríguez is likely to make his MLB debut sometime next year.

4. Carlos Lagrange – Lagrange is at the top of the organization in terms of raw stuff and the ability to miss bats. The 6-foot-7 right-hander features an electric fastball that can reach 102 mph alongside a wipeout slider, and he was able to put it all together for the first time in 2025 and flash his sky-high upside across two levels. The Achilles heel for Lagrange has always been his walk rates, which before last season had completely derailed his professional career. Despite a breakout year, this was still the obvious flaw in his profile with a 7.1-percent walk rate in High-A which ballooned to 14.9 percent in Double-A. However, a 33.4-percent strikeout rate across the two levels was enough to offset the walks, which mostly came during a few blow-up games which sabotaged his season stats. He was downright dominant in many of his starts, and ended the year with 11 shutout innings and a 15/3 K/BB in his final two outings. He profiles similarly to Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski, and further refinement could turn Lagrange into a high-end MLB starter.

5. Dax Kilby – The Yankees’ first-round pick from this year’s MLB Draft is off to a fantastic start to his career. Kilby is a 6-foot-2 shortstop drafted out of high school (just like Lombard) with tremendous upside and a smooth left-handed swing. He was sent directly to Low-A to start his career, and in his first 81 plate appearances he slashed .353/.457/.441 with 13 walks, 11 strikeouts, two doubles, and two triples. In total, he recorded a 159 wRC+. Kilby is doing this in a very small sample at one of the lowest levels of the minor leagues, but posting these numbers just after he was drafted is an incredibly exciting development for the Yankees. If Kilby can access his raw power and drive some balls out of the park, he could move up this list in time.

6. Ben Hess – The Yankees took a chance on Hess in the first round of the 2024 MLB Draft despite poor numbers in his final season at Alabama, and his first professional season went a long way towards proving them right about his upside. Hess anchors his arsenal with a lively fastball that sits in the high-90s and plays up due to his delivery and extension, and complements it with a curveball, slider, and changeup. He always missed bats at Alabama despite a bloated ERA, and his K% has been consistently around the 33-percent rate in both college and the pros, but he’s slightly lowered his walk rate with the Yankees. The big improvement has been his ability to limit damage, as his ERA went from 5.80 in his final season of college to 3.22 in his first season with the Yankees (3.51 in High-A, 2.70 in Double-A.) He should be in the running for a promotion to Triple-A early in the 2026 season, and could earn a spot in the big-league rotation before too long.

7. Cade Smith – Despite missing most of the 2025 season due to injury, Smith’s performance down the stretch for High-A Hudson Valley and his dominance in the Arizona Fall League should catch the organization’s eye. Like most of the pitchers on this list, Smith has a strong ability to miss bats but struggles at times with walks. In 32.2 innings with the Renegades, he fanned 26 percent of the batters he faced but also walked 12 percent of them and recorded a 2.76 ERA. He was able to control his pitches more effectively in Arizona, where he pitched 12.2 innings and struck out 14 batters while only walking two on his way to an AFL Fall Stars Game appearance. Smith will turn 24 next season so he’ll need to prove himself at a higher level soon, but he has momentum and the ability to capitalize on it in 2026.

8. Chase Hampton – Once the most highly-regarded pitcher in the Yankees’ farm system, Hampton’s stock is down after a series of injuries culminated in the right-hander undergoing Tommy John surgery and missing the entire 2025 campaign. It would be unwise to forget about him though, as Hampton possesses the arsenal and command of a big-league starter and will look to bounce back in 2026 with a fully-healthy season. His stuff was at its peak in 2023, the distant past at this point, though New York still felt good enough about him to protect him on the 40-man roster in November. Next season will be a crucial plot point in Hampton’s career.

9. Richard Matic – This is an aggressive ranking for a 17-year-old prospect in the Dominican Summer League, but Matic’s performance and profile are worthy of acknowledgement despite not being fully on the radar quite yet among prospect enthusiasts. He was far and away the best player for either of the Yankees DSL affiliates, and has the makings of a player to watch closely. Matic slashed .336/.487/.566 with five home runs and 11 steals, and displayed an advanced plate approach with a 20.9-percent walk rate. He’s a third baseman with huge raw power, and saw his contact rate skyrocket from 55 percent in 2024 to 69.6 percent in 2025. He’s the most exciting player in rookie ball for the Yankees right now, and will likely begin the 2026 season in the Complex league. Another strong showing there should send him to Low-A for his stateside debut, where his stock could truly explode.

10. Bryce Cunningham – The Yankees’ 2024 second-round pick missed significant time due to injury, but posted a 2.82 ERA in 54 innings at High-A with a 25.0/8.6 K/BB% in a promising start to his professional career. The missed time resulted in Cunningham being sent to the Arizona Fall League, where he struggled immensely. He posted a 10.38 ERA in 13 innings in Arizona, conceding 20 hits and 15 earned runs while walking nine batters and striking out just eight. He took the loss in four of the five games in which he pitched. Cunningham is still deserving of a spot on this list, but the AFL performance was very concerning. Hopefully he was experimenting with something new, or it winds up being just a blip on a successful career. He should start the 2026 season in the Double-A rotation.

While the 2025 season saw a lot of prospects depart the organization, there were also some players who saw big improvements and will look to capitalize on them moving forward. We’ll be back next week to acknowledge some honorable mentions who narrowly missed out on making the Top 10.