On Wednesday morning MLB Pipeline released a list of the top-10 left-handed pitching prospects in the game. Included in the ranking of the games elite southpaws was Yankees top-pitching prospect, Justus Sheffield.
Trenton Thunder starting pitcher Justus Sheffield works against the Reading Fightin Phils in Trenton on May 22, 2017. (Martin Griff)
The 21-year old Sheffield was listed as the third best overall left-handed pitching prospect just behind MacKenzie Gore of the Padres (1) and A.J. Puk of Oakland (2). The Yankees acquired Sheffield along with Clint Frazier and J.P. Feyereisen last July in a deal that sent reliever Andrew Miller to the Indians.
Sheffield is coming off of a 2017 campaign that saw him go 7-6 with a 3.18 ERA in 17 starts for Double-A Trenton. After an up and down first half of the season, Sheffield missed significant action due to an oblique strain that cost him nearly two months of action between July and August this past summer.
Scottsdale Scorpions starting pitcher Justus Sheffield (34), of the New York Yankees organization, delivers a pitch to the plate during an Arizona Fall League game against the Mesa Solar Sox on October 23, 2017 at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Solar Sox defeated the Scorpions 5-2. (Zachary Lucy/Four Seam Images via AP)
The Yankees summoned Sheffield to the AFL to get some extra work before shutting him down for the winter. In five starts for Scottsdale, the southpaw went 2-2 with a 3.10 ERA in 20 1/3 innings of work. He allowed 14 hits and fanned 22 batters while holding the opposition to a .192 batting average and got the starting nod in the annual AFL Fall Stars game; he finished second in the AFL in WHIP with a 0.84 mark.
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