Dillon Tate dissed in prospect rankings

Dillon Tate dissed in prospect rankings, then dissed by Yankees
[www.nj.com]

The Yankees will have most of their best prospects in big-league camp for spring training.

Right-hander James Kaprielian and lefty Justus Sheffield will be in Tampa when pitchers and catchers start workouts on Feb. 14.


Hard-throwing righty Dillon Tate, one of the Yankees' best prospects, talks pitching, his background and off-the-field interests.


Shortstops Gleyber Torres and Jorge Mateo, and outfielder Clint Frazier will be there when the other position players begin spring training five days later.

Among the uninvited:

Right-hander Dillon Tate, the big return for the Yankees last Aug. 1 when All-Star right fielder/DH Carlos Beltran was dealt to the Texas Rangers.


Yankees rotation openings
"He's lost his fastball," ESPN draft/prospect expert Keith Law said this week in a conference call.

This time a year ago, Tate was about to head into his first full pro season regarded as one of baseball's top prospects. The 6-foot-2, 165-pounder had been drafted fourth overall in 2015 as a college junior at UC-Santa Barbara, which switched him from closer to starter that year, a change that led to scouts being wowed by a lot of mid-to-high-90s fastballs.

Also this time a year ago, Law had Tate ranked 50th on his list of top 100 prospects and wrote, "No. 2 starter upside with low probability, but a fairly high floor as a high-leverage reliever." Texas, which gave Tate a $4.2 million signing bonus, thought it had something special brewing.

A few months later, after just a half-season of Tate disappointing as a starter in the low-A South Atlantic League (5.12 ERA, 17 games, 16 starts), the Rangers were willing to give him up for a middle-of-the-lineup bat who also was a 39-year-old rental.

As a Yankees prospect, Tate was nothing special as a reliever in the final two months for their Sally League club (3.12 ERA, 7 games), then it was more of the same in the Arizona Fall League (3.86 ERA, 6 games).

And now ramifications are pouring in:

Tate didn't make Law's 2017 top 100, which was released last week, then days later the Yankees made their silent statement with no big-league spring training invite.

Is Tate, who turns 23 in May, on his way to becoming a big bust?

Scouts do get turned off seeing a young arm go from throwing in the high-90s to the low 90s.

"I saw him at Santa Barbara," Law said. "He was 94-98 as a starter and holding it with a pretty good slider. And I saw him last spring with Texas, and the first time out he was bumping 95 and they cleaned up the delivery.

"He hurt his hamstring in April, and after he came back and all the way through Fall League when I saw him yet again, his fastball was just not there. He's pitching with an average fastball now, even in shorter stints in relief."

Is Jorge Mateo becoming a bust?
Is Jorge Mateo becoming a bust?
Yankees shortstop prospect Jorge Mateo went from 55th on Keith Law's top 100 list in 2016 to out of the top 100 this year.

Law isn't alone in being down on Tate, who also isn't in MLB Pipeline's top 100 prospects after previously topping out at No. 46. And last October a scout had this to say about Tate after seeing a couple of his Fall League outings:

"I can't get into too much of why I know this, but if Tate doesn't change his pre-game and if he doesn't change how he goes about his work, he'll never succeed ... period."

The Yankees, despite the spring dissing, probably aren't close to giving up on Tate. After all, 2017 will be just his second full pro season and, while not in Law's top 100, he is ranked as the 14th best prospect for the Yankees, who have one of baseball's best and deepest farm systems.

"How the Yankees were able to get him at all in that (Beltran) trade ... I'm sure they are well aware that if the fastball doesn't come back, he's just a middle-relief type," Law said. "You are acquiring him hoping that with an offseason of rest and working with him on conditioning stuff, maybe he finds some of that missing fastball."





Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.