One thing has become apparent, the New York Yankees have young arms coming out of the woodwork. What other arms may be flying under the radar? Matt Sauer.
One thing has become apparent lately, the New York Yankees have young arms coming out of the woodwork. This first became evident when Jordan Montgomery went down due to injury and then again when Masahiro Tanaka hit the disabled list. Domingo German and Jonathan Loaisiga have both been called upon to fill these roles despite coming into the year as unlikely candidates to reach the major league level. Both German and Loaisiga have catapulted themselves over a number of other promising pitching prospects to get the call-up to the Bronx, which proves that you can’t always go by “top prospect lists” when attempting to assess who will be called up next.
So what other arms may be flying under the radar right now? Meet Matt Sauer. Sauer happened to make his debut for the Staten Island Yankees the same night Loaisiga made his major league debut. Like Loaisiga, he turned some heads as he tossed six no-hit innings (75 pitches) while striking out three and allowing just one walk.
Staten Island: Matt Sauer-6 Shutout Innings https://t.co/bJxJXUrY1U
— Geoff Magliocchetti (@GeoffMags5490) June 16, 2018
Sauer was drafted by the Yankees in the second round (54th pick) of last years MLB Draft and was later signed by the Yankees for just south of 2.5 million dollars. The 19-year-old, Southern California native, had a stellar high school career both at the plate and on the mound. After his junior year, Sauer put on 20 pounds of muscle which ultimately resulted in an increase in velocity. What was once an 88-91 MPH fastball became a 92-95 MPH fastball that has topped off at 97 MPH. This led to a stellar senior season where he posted a 0.98 ERA, resulting in a 9-1 record while striking out 142 batters in 78.1 innings pitched.
You would think that Sauer is still a few years away from making it to the show, but is he? Sauer already has three above-average pitches which have become the modern-day pre-requisite in order to make your way through the system quickly. For all we know, Brian Cashman could be selling the upside of Matt Sauer to other GM’s as we speak, after all, he did deal James Kaprielian (a former first-round pitching prospect) at the deadline last season. Regardless, it is worth following how Sauer performs in his second outing on Thursday and beyond.