The Yankees announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of outfielder Estevan Florial from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Fellow outfielder Jasson Dominguez, who was recently diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, was placed on the 10-day injured list to open a spot on the active roster. The Yankees already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster, which is now at capacity.
Florial, 25, was once considered among the Yankees’ best prospects but has seen his stock tumble enough in recent years that he went unclaimed on waivers early in the season. He’s received just 63 plate appearances in the Majors and has a tepid .185/.302/.278 slash in that time, although his numbers in Triple-A are far better. Florial hit .283/.368/.481 with 15 homers and 39 steals with Scranton in 2022 and is having a similarly eye-catching year in 2023: .284/.380/.565, 28 home runs, 25 stolen bases.
Impressive as the raw rate stats and counting numbers are, questions about Florial’s hit tool have persisted for some time now, and his strikeout rates in Triple-A remain a pronounced red flag. Florial punched out in 30.4% of his Triple-A plate appearances last year and is currently sitting on a nearly identical 29.9% strikeout rate in 2023. He’s walked in more than 12% of his plate appearances over the past two seasons as well, but the penchant for strikeouts is nonetheless concerning. That Florial wasn’t claimed earlier this season and that he was continually passed over for journeymen like Jake Bauers, Willie Calhoun, Billy McKinney and Greg Allen in 2023 at least strongly implies that the Yankees and other clubs share in those concerns.
With Dominguez now out for the season, the Yankees will finally give Florial a look in the big leagues. He’s already been jettisoned from the 40-man roster once despite strong Triple-A output, so this could well be something of a last chance for the out-of-options former top prospect to prove to the organization that he ought to stick in the Majors. If he’s removed from the 40-man roster a second time, he’ll have the right to elect free agency. For now, the Yankees will mix Florial into the outfield alongside reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge, prospect Everson Pereira, utilityman Oswaldo Cabrera and the aforementioned Bauers.
And how soon will he be injured? Good lord.
I give him 2 weeks and that’s because I’m feeling extra today since I consumed 2 Monster Energy drinks
Stanton Curse,,,,be careful
Stanton should be the curse
Frankie, I think you’re a good dude. But sometimes I wonder if you take full advantage of Marijuana being legal in NY. 🙂
Yankees should’ve traded him, McKinney and somehow Clint Frazier at the deadline for Cody Bellinger and Stroman.
Yankees aren’t interested in trading prospects, they’re more interesting in browbeating other teams and the media about how good their medicore prospects are.
Cashman has a bad habit of holding onto “prospects” too long. Adams, Garcia, Florial, ect
Florial is a TOTAL MLB BUST.
Yankees have optioned him a couple of times and couldn’t give him away.
B-U-S-T
Keep dreaming. Belli is the Cubs mvp.
The might as well play Florial in CF the rest of the season. It’s not as if there are better options.
this oughta be a lit discussion
This is the last opportunity for Fluorescent to shine?
Could you imagine, if he actually ended up being a good player. I’m not holding my breath but it would be ironic. Cash will take all the credit saying he knew it all the time it
He was just waiting for the right time to bring him up.
If he’s decent, give the dude a league min contract next season. He can play CF or LF until the Martian can throw again. Cashman tried to give him away in the spring with no takers so I’m doubtful he’s with the team next year. He should probably also decline any Yankees ST invites. It’s like a bad marriage.
I can assure you that it will be 🙂
Rooting for him
This was why the Yankees kept him around this year. An emergency that finally arrived in September, and one that won’t require them to pass him back through waivers.
Let’s be honest he’s basically a “AAAA” player. Call him the Dominican Jeff Manto.
Hey come on. Jeff Manto will have more of a career than Can’t Miss Florial will ever have.
I actually got to see Manto play in AAA Buffalo for the Bisons a few times when I lived there for a several years.
how much value did he have and when?
Last time he had value was around the time that the Cubs won the title in 2016 🙁
Yo
144Ks in 101 games. Guy likes to swing and miss a lot.
THAT’S WHY CASHMAN LOVES HIM OBVIOUSLY 🙂
Under analytics you walk, swing and miss or strikeout, that’s the 2023 New York Yankees in a nutshell.
@mlb fan
Unfortunate that the nerds got involved with baseball to the point that they thought it’s a good idea to encourage players that either walk, strikeout or his a homerun. The founding players of MLB are rolling in their graves with the mess we have today.
I hear Michael Kaye now … “Swiiing and a miss…”
Quite honestly if I got a man on 1st , my sloth fat 40 hr clean up slugger coming up. Less than 2 out. .. if he’s gonna make an out , I’d rather him strikeout than hit a ground ball.
@mlb fan
You left out “visit the IL at least twice a season” 🙂
The founding players of MLB played without gloves, with a ball that only went 200 feet in the air, 9 balls to get a walk and all home runs were inside the park because there were no outfield fences.
Is it really worth having someone who only hits 40 HRs in a year on your team that is an auto-out the rest of the ABs?
@28rings
Thanks for the nostalgic reminder of the good ol’days. Lots of excitement and fun and no cheap access to getting on base with 4 balls.
But solid organization s like the Rays & Dodgers use analysis but also consider human elements and other data that informs their decision making. Analytics is still a great tool my friend. It just has to be used together qith other factors, such as common sense.
can you imagine how long at bats would have lasted if we still have 9 ball walks, especially before the pitch clock ? some of those mid-2000’s Red Sox / Yankee games would STILL be in the 8th inning right now. LOL
Sounds like you’re not a fan of the way baseball is played today. Look, I’m an old guy so I get what you’re saying. But you got to quit being the Get Off My Lawn guy and either change with the times or stop following MLB. It’s a simple choice. I live the “good old days” but I also love baseball and have learned to accept things as they are. MLB is slowly turning around their thinking if you listen to what Epstein is saying. He knows he was part of the problem and is trying to change things.
@28rings
I miss those games… Battle and grind it out.
@rememberthecoop
It’s not like they’ve implemented anything revolutionary. Small ball existed before Babe Ruth and was quite successful. A lot of action, stolen bases, triples, inside the park HRs, etc. Then we brought on the HR era and our focus was on who could hit a homerun but it sapped out a lot of strategy of the small-ball era. That’s why I enjoy watching the Japanese league because it still has a fair amount of small-ball involved in the game. Their HR derby doesn’t last hours and hours. There is just too much focus on data to the point that it’s become more of a robotic game than anything you could call entertainment.
@josebatflip
Walks are only important to the game if the players behind that walk can bring in the player. Look at San Diego, they continue to struggle with RISP, despite their lineup.
Slash line: .237/.320/.394
baseball-reference.com/tools/split_stats_lg.cgi?fu…
Their one of the top teams for walks in the league but can’t bring players in to score. So, how much do walks add?
chicks dig the long ball… Babe Ruth and McGwire/Sosa breaking the all time single season HR record brought the fans back after the 1919 Black Sox Scandal and the 1994 Strike.
I miss those games when I WENT to them… and/or an afternoon game on the weekend. but now I like to go to sleep early. those 4-5 hour Yankees/Red Sox ESPN Sunday night games were brutal.
Lets be fair – if Cashman liked this guy he wouldn’t have passed up on so many opportunities to bring him up. They know he’s a AAAA player hence why he never gets called up.
Cashman sucks and has not proven crap so whats your point?
@morecowbell
Most of the prospects the Yanks have kept down there for centuries instead of trading them have turned out to be nothingburgers. Yankees lost their way after George departed.
They didn’t lose their way after George. They lost their way after Stick Michael.
Volpe has .212 avg and leads Yankees with 147k’s so lets say if Florial can put up similar numbers as Volpe and im a firm believer he does better I say Yankees have a CF stop gap for 2024 on the cheap until The Martian recovers from his UCL injury. The lineup needs LH power for Yankee stadium and imo Rizzo, Wells , Florial will balance that lineup nicely with that missing power and if they add Bellinger to play LF/CF then he becomes their new 1B in 2025 when Rizzo contract is up this team can be contenders adding another quality starter.
None of this matters. the Yankees will struggle to finish at .500, struggle more to see more of their players come up with season-ending injuries, and struggle even more in the offseason–because no changes will be made Florial isn’t going to be an answer, even if he performs reasonably well..
BTW, Aaron Hicks has 9 hits in his last 18AB
The problem was Hicks stunk in NY for like 3-4 yrs now. Ill bet my house Florial if given the same chances as Hicks puts up far better numbers than Hicks would dream ! Yes Florial strike outs will be high but ill take .245/25/65 with minimum 45+ SB in the 9 hole as a lefty hitter and great defender earning mlb minimum. Its a joke the Yankees feel they need to have a $15-30 million player at every position who cannot perform. Florial deserves 300 at bats to show he belongs
A 40% strikeout rate is not sustainable. What makes you think he will have 45+ SB if he can’t get on base?
The kid had a measly 70 at bats spread out over 2 1/2 yrs which is hardly a good sample. Volpe leads the team in K’s at 150+ and counting and hitting .213 so why is he getting a pass? All im saying is Yankees have an excellent CF/LF option for cheap sitting in the minors who deserves at least 200-300 at bats or half a season playing everyday to prove himself. I’ll guarantee you he hits better than .213 Volpe showing!
Volpe and Florial are not comparable in terms of SO rate, and this is why. Volpe is striking out 30% of the time at the MAJOR league level – his SO rate in the minors was even better at 17%. Florial is striking out 35% at the MINOR league level. It would be counter-intuitive to think that his 35% in the minors would improve dramatically after moving up a level to face better pitching. His limited play time at the MLB level shows this. It’s more likely to get worse… even a little bit worse would be 40%+ which is not sustainable – and everything that people have been complaining about.
Maybe relentlessly booing the guy for those 3 to 4 years did more damage than Yankee fans will admit.
Do people honestly think booing works? Like it’s all part of their master plan to underperform, just to stick it to complete strangers.
And I’ll bet you were all over the Volpe hype when he first came up. You just assumed he was the next Jeter, being a SS from NJ. He had to be.
.245 hitter with 25 homers and 45 stolen bases out of any hitter is a big ask. Let alone one who has struck out about 30% of the time at Triple-A this year.
We all know that Yankees’ prospects are way over-valued, especially by the media and the Yankees’ fans. People would tell you that the Yankees would not trade Volpe for Justin Steele but Steele is worth more.
That being said, Florial is the the type of post-hype prospect who could catch fire at the end of a totally lost season. He gets a chance to shine and he may never get a second chance. Hope it works out. Some players can just concentrate better and turn it up when they get to the show. Not like he can jeopardize the Yankees’ 2023 post-season opportunities.
Or 2024 postseason opportunities either, if there is one, which I doubt.
He is getting the chance to re-establish himself within the Yankees organization. if he hits a few home runs before the end of the year, he may have people clamoring to keep him on the 40 man. Or it may just be an audition for other teams like the A’s or Tigers or Rockies.
Either way, I wish the young man luck.
Ditto
See the part I don’t get is that in the last couple of years the Yankees had to have seen this guy wasn’t going to be what he was hyped. At which point, why not trade him before the rest of the league figures it out and at least you get some major league talent back?
The pump and dump scheme only works when you actually get rid of the overvalued asset.
Cash traded away elite prospects for nothing last season. Remember Medina, Wesneski, Waldichuk, Sears. I think Hal should fire both Cash and Boone after this season is over. Cash is no longer an elite GM.
Don’t be that hard on Cash , your rotation there would lose 110 games.
elite? Medina, Wesneski, Waldichuk, Sears have ERAs of 5.68, 5,20, 5.63 and 4.51 this year
I remember about every two years, starting with J.D. Drew, writers had a bad habit of labeling a player “The next Mickey Mantle.”
Given that list of overhyped players (Xavier Nady, Rick Ankiel, a bunch of others), I smile at Jasson Dominguez being the first to both Switch-Hit and play CF.
I hope he isn’t out too long and doesn’t have any negative effects from surgery or the development time he’ll miss.
it was around well before JD Drew. just with the Yankees alone we had Kevin Maas, Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens, Dan Pasqua, Brian Dayett, Joe Lefebvre…
Juan Rivera also comes to mind
JD Drew is my first memory, but you are right. I think Ron Blomberg mmmmight have been in that group, but I’m not old enough to know
1st one was Bobby Murcer
2nd one was Bill Robinson. And he made the mistake of hitting a HR on Opening Day. Never recovered from the NY hype until he escaped to Philly & Pittsburgh.
Give him the last three weeks. They have nothing to lose.
Agree. I personally feel analytics and Cashman destroyed this kid.
Only the Yankees keep top 100 MILB players in the minors for 6 years. They do it over and over and usually end up cutting or trading most of them for peanuts. It’s an interesting way to run an organization.
They tried to trade him, several times. Nobody wanted him.
The Yankees issue is they try to trade when the shine has dimmed rather when the shine is glistening. They could have gotten a haul for Clint Frazier for years but ended up giving him away. Same with a few others I can think of, and by that time it’s clear the players aren’t that good.
But still, the Yankee pedigree is coveted by other teams and the front office should take advantage of it because truth is they’ve always been a veteran oriented franchise.
As soon Florial gets 3 base hit going to the IL,,,Stanton curse again
3 BASE HIT
Florial back for his last chance in pinstripes. Put up or shut up time.
Buy or sell the Yankees go 11-8 in their lost 19 games to avoid their first losing season since 1992…
Buy. Their schedule the rest of the season favors them.
Buy or sell they allow more runs than they score for the season? They’re at -19 right now.
Is McKinney out for the year? Yankees could of given Dunham a chance.
Use correct grammar, Adams.
“Impressive as the raw rate stats and counting numbers are…” is not proper English. The sentence MUST start with “as.” It’s not optional. Just because it’s colloquial and something you might say in conversation, that is NOT how English is written.
Seriously Tim Dierkes, fire this Adams guy. Terrible writer.
You would have to take his job as a conditional clause.
Gladly.