Exciting news came yesterday — the New York Yankees signed perhaps the No. 1 international prospect, 18-year-old Dominican shortstop Roderick Arias. Though it will almost certainly be more than a few years before he’ll debut in MLB, it’s a good thing for New York to land a consensus top prospect, considering they’ve struggled within the last decade of finding successful major league players through the domestic draft.
The obvious recent exception is Aaron Judge, who the Yankees drafted 32nd overall in 2013. Aside from him, the first-round picks the Yankees made in the last 20 years who have actually debuted with the team are Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Joba Chamberlain, Andrew Brackman, Slade Heathcott, and Clarke Schmidt — the latter trio combining for a grand total of 25 big league games.