One prospect each MLB team should call up right now

New York Yankees: Justus Sheffield

Because they have so much money to throw around, Brian Cashman and the rest of the New York Yankees front office might never get the credit they deserve for building one of the best farm systems in baseball. All it took was a little patience and laying off the free agents for a few offseasons to build a young core that rivals the early years of the Derek Jeter dynasty.

Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar have headlined the most recent wave of young Yankee hitters to break through to the next level. At Triple-A, left-hander Justus Sheffield is preparing to join Luis Severino in the MLB rotation. The 22-year-old was part of the 2016 deal that sent Andrew Miller to Cleveland, and he is polished.

Sheffield throws a fastball that sits comfortably in the mid-90s with good sinking action. The fastball is already a plus offering, but the young lefty’s slider has even more potential as a strikeout pitch. Sheffield’s slider, like his fastball, is graded a 60 on the 20-80 scouting scale. He still needs more work developing his changeup, but has already had success with it at the upper levels of the minor leagues. Sheffield has three potential plus pitches on his hands.

The Yankees were very careful with Severino, and have no reason to rush Sheffield up to the big leagues before he is ready. That being said, there isn’t much left for him to prove at Triple-A. Sheffield has already struck out 18 in his first 16.1 innings at Scranton with a 1.65 ERA. As Sonny Gray and Masahiro Tanaka continue to struggle, the Yankees come that much closer to breaking the glass and calling up Sheffield.