Yankees shake up lower levels of farm system with promotions

RHP Randy Vasquez and RHP Beck Way along with C Antonio Gomez, Carlos Narvaez and OF Anthony Garcia were recently reportedly promoted to their next levels of play, which results in Vasquez moving up to Double-A Somerset, Way and Narvaez moving up to High-A Hudson Valley, and Garcia and Gomez moving up to Low-A Tampa from the FCL. None of the promotions have been officially confirmed by their respective clubs, but that will come a few hours after this goes live.

I have had the good fortune of seeing both pitchers in their respective times in Tampa, including Beck Way’s pro debut on May 26^th.

Beck Way (Photo by John Brophy / Pinstriped Prospects)

Starting with Way, he didn’t give up an earned run in his first three starts, or 5.2 innings of work. The Yankees start off pitchers with a low pitch count in Tampa, then gradually work them up to 80+ pitches before they get promoted up to Hudson Valley.

Over the course of the months of June and July, Way held a 4.50 ERA; 14 earned runs in 28 innings on 17 hits. So far in the month of August, Way has yet to give up a run, and indeed has not given up an earned run since July 30^th. Way has only given up two home runs on the year as well.

In his last game in Tampa before being promoted (August 22^nd), Way threw 4.2 no-hit innings and reached 97.9 MPH on his heater. His offspeed pitch, a slider, sat at around 83 MPH.

Randy Vasquez (Robert M. Pimpsner)

Regarding Randy Vasquez, I’ve long spoken about how he was an under-the-radar player (dating back to May 18^th), and it’s good to see his performances get recognized within the organization. Vasquez threw a 0.50 ERA in June only giving up one run in 18 innings of work. Between his debut in Tampa and the end of June, he only had one “bad” game (8 ER in 2 IP). Excluding that game, he held a 1.12 ERA after 32.1 innings, only giving up four runs in that time.

Vasquez doesn’t have a lot of heat, but can get up to the mid-90s and is usually seen around 95-96 MPH. His off-speed pitches, a curveball which sits in the low 80s and a change-up which averages upper 80s are where he has some control issues, which is the opposite of what pitchers usually experience.

Anthony Garcia celebrating his home run (Photo by John Brophy / Pinstriped Prospects)

Anthony Garcia is someone that tends to fall under the radar as far as prospects go, but he’s been proving himself at the Yankees’ Scouting and Training Complex in Tampa for the FCL squad. In the 23 games he’s appeared in this year, Garcia is batting .318 with 21 hits, 21 RBI and 8 HR

This is one of the home runs I saw Garcia hit while in FCL/Rookie Ball

Anthony Garcia goes oppo 🌮 with a 3-run homer to put the #FCLYankees on the board pic.twitter.com/SZt1SZ7jpd

— John Brophy (@jbrophybaseball) July 22, 2021

Found Anthony Garcia’s HR on the way out. I figure it went about 375-400 feet pic.twitter.com/gGuqm56VYF

— John Brophy (@jbrophybaseball) July 22, 2021

Garcia gets tons of attention with his bat, but not much with his glove and indeed I cannot comment much on his fielding performance. Nothing really to “write home about”. His size and muscular build reminds me a lot of Aaron Judge. Garcia is 6’5”, while Judge is 6’8”, but there’s a lot of similarities.

Carlos Narvaez rounding the bases after a home run in Clearwater (Photo by John Brophy/Pinstriped Prospects)

Carlos Narvaez was one of the guys that had stuck around since Opening Day back in May with the Tarpons and has now been promoted to High-A Hudson Valley. Narvaez has been struggling offensively in August but his bat has shown some pop of late, despite what the stats say.

Carlos Narvaez gets the Tarpons on the board with a 394 ft, 101 MPH exit velo solo homer pic.twitter.com/BOpkWk1BWm

— John Brophy (@jbrophybaseball) August 19, 2021

Narvaez, who is indeed related to Milwaukee’s All-Star catcher, has consistently been a good defender behind the plate with only one passed ball (a tough feat at this level) and has shown off his arm multiple times throughout the season throwing out multiple baserunners. If I had to make a prediction, I can see Narvaez being a future Donny Sands-type player. He didn’t really catch a lot of attention in Tampa, but built up a reputation over time and exploded offensively later in his career.

Antonio Gomez (Photo by John Brophy / Pinstriped Prospects)

Finally, Antonio Gomez was the promotion a lot of Yankee fans seem to have been looking forward to since Jasson Dominguez has been promoted to Low-A Tampa. Gomez has proven so far that he’s able to deliver on the hype that’s been produced of him on social media, and is one of the best defenders, if not the best defender, I’ve seen behind the plate in a while.

You could say that Gomez’s trademark feature is his cannon arm. He’s scouted as having a 70 arm and I wholeheartedly agree with that. The only issue here is a recurring triceps issue in 2019 and 2020, but doesn’t appear to have any issues this year thus far. Gomez blocks errant balls well, but has had a few get away from him.

Gomez has been batting a slash of .298/.411/.468/.879 in 28 games with the FCL Yankees, but has been really killing the ball in August with a slash of .361/.452/.667/1.119. Gomez is not much of a power hitter with only 2 home runs, but has shown he has power. Gomez is a somewhat quick runner for being a catcher, with catchers somehow known for being slow.