Former First-Round Pick Another Young Horse for Yankees

The New York Yankees' selection of Ben Hess in the first round in 2024 proved that teams value stuff over past results. Hess had an ERA north of 5 coming out of Alabama.

The Yankees aren't the only teams that work this way, either. Their rivals up north, the Toronto Blue Jays, made a $200+ million commitment to Dylan Cease solely based on his strikeout stuff. It's a financial version of what the Yankees did when they selected Hess.

Once upon a time, smart teams could get away with underpaying this type of player or waiting until they fell to them in the draft. Now, everybody is privy to that way of thinking. Those days are over, and given the confused nature of fans when that Hess pick was made, they'll just have to catch up to how teams are thinking in the modern game, whether they understand it or not.

Yankees Draft Ben Hess out of Alabam — Jul 14, 2024; Ft. Worth, TX, USA; Ben Hess is drafted by the New York Yankees with the 26th pick during the first round of the MLB Draft at Cowtown Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Hess' Big Day

In the case of Hess, in an exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he was downright nasty, giving a small glimpse of the type of player they saw at Alabama. He generated 11 swings and misses. In three innings pitched, he struck out five and walked two.

In the sixth and seventh innings, five of his six outs were from strikeouts. He struck out the side in the seventh, dominating Jhonny Severino in just three pitches and PJ Hilson in four.

2024 1st round pick RHP Ben Hess notched 5 Ks against the Pirates 👊 pic.twitter.com/JOqpdpQztD
— NYYPlayerDev (@NYYPlayerDev) February 23, 2026

It's true, these games don't matter. The captain, Aaron Judge, said as much when he crushed the Detroit Tigers for two home runs. For an up-and-coming pitcher like Hess, though, these outcomes make all the difference in the world. There's room for any young pitcher who impresses the big club.

Impressing the Big Club

To start the season, the Yankees will be without ace Gerrit Cole. He'll be out at least until June. They'll also have to wait for Carlos Rodon, who seems to get better every year after that disaster of a first season in the Bronx. His timetable suggests he'll be back on the mound in May.

Even though Hess has seven games at AA, where he pitched to a 2.70 ERA and had an exorbitant 11.70 K/9, what's to say a good spring doesn't raise some eyebrows? In 2023, the Yankees expedited Anthony Volpe's timetable when they needed a shortstop and didn't feel they could trust Oswald Peraza to man the position. At that point, Volpe played in just 22 games in AAA.

The hope is that Carlos Lagrange and Elmer Rodriguez, who are both further in their development than Hess at this point, become horses themselves. Still, in case of emergency, if both falter, and they could get more wins out of Hess than Paul Blackburn or Ryan Yarbrough, it could be their former first-round pick who gets a few starts for the big club if necessary.

A Brave New World for Young Pitchers

If there are betting odds for situations like these, it's unlikely to happen. Then again, ask those same Blue Jays if they thought Trey Yesavage — a young arm who came equipped to the postseason with a nasty splitter that shut down the Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers — if he would be getting some of the most important outs in the team's history.

Toronto Blue Jays Trey Yesavage Shuts Down Yankee — Oct 5, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider (14) talks to pitcher Trey Yesavage (39) in the sixth inning against the New York Yankees during game two of the ALDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images | John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

Yesavage made six starts in AAA in 2025. He provided key starts to help the Jays win the division and bring them to within one game of their first World Series in decades.

It's a whole new world in baseball these days. There's room for anybody if you're nasty enough. This doesn't just go for Hess. The same could be said of the other horses in their system, Lagrange and Rodriguez.

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