Many of the New York Yankees top prospects in 2024 haven’t been performing particularly well in the minor leagues this season. Fortunately for New York, one of its more unheralded prospects is coming through with a breakout 2024 season.
Spencer Jones, widely viewed as the Yankees top prospect, is slashing just .228/.309/.367 with 5 home runs and a .675 OPS in his first 204 plate appearances this season. Meanwhile, New York’s top pitching prospect Will Warren (7.24 ERA, 1.52 WHIP) has had issues and teenage shortstop George Lombard Jr (.626 OPS) is struggling in A-Ball.
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It’s largely gone unnoticed with New York near the top of the MLB standings. While the team isn’t particularly concerned by early-season woes from the Yankees top prospects, there is real excitement over the emergence of a young catcher.
Agustin Ramirez, a 22-year-old catcher playing for the Double-A Somerset Patriots, has been tearing the cover off the ball this season and is one of the most productive minor-league players in 2024.
- Agustin Ramirez stats: .281/.375/.578, 15 home runs, 12 stolen bases, 41 RBI, 40 runs scored, 10 doubles, 28 walks, .419 wOBA, 161 wRC+, .953 OPS, 17% K-rate, 12.5% BB rate
Among players with 200-plus plate appearances in the minor leagues this season, Ramirez ranks 16th in wRC+. Of that group, he is one of just 11 with a strikeout rate under 20 percent. He also ranks eighth in the minor leagues in isolated power (.297).
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Some in the industry weren’t especially high on Ramirez entering the season. MLB.com ranked him 20th among the Yankees top prospects entering the season. Meanwhile, Keith Law of The Athletic didn’t list him among the top 20 prospects in the Yankees farm system. However, one outlet saw the breakout year coming.
FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen rated Ramirez as the 12th-best Yankees’ prospect entering the 2024 season. Ramirez was also named one of FanGraphs’ picks to click in 2024, with the belief he could emerge as a top 100 prospect in 2025.
“In part because of the pandemic and the crowded field of catchers at the level above him, it took Ramirez four years to exit rookie ball, which he did emphatically in 2023. He slayed the Florida State League for two months before back-to-back one-month stints at High-A Hudson Valley and Double-A Somerset to close out the year. Ramirez’s offensive performance tapered off with each subsequent promotion and his defense remains a bit unkempt. His receiving around the edge of the zone and raw arm strength are both fine, but Ramirez is currently pretty bad at picking balls in the dirt, and his slow exit from his crouch drags his pop times down into an average range. He isn’t ready to be a big league defender just yet, but he isn’t so bad to that I’m projecting him to first base. This is still a young catcher with rare power at a position where players tend to break late.
Eric Longenhagen on New York Yankees prospect Agustin Ramirez in December
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The Yankees are even higher on their younger slugger. Double-A hitting coach Kevin Martir labeled Ramirez’s offensive skillset as “generational” and he’s more than backed it up with his work at the plate.
Ramirez is certainly at least a year away from making his major league debut and he might not stick at catcher. However, whether he’s used as a trade chip to improve the Yankees’ World Series aspirations this year or he’s a key part of the future Yankees’ lineup, he seems to have a bright future in baseball.