Drew Thorpe announced himself as one of the premier young players to watch out for on Monday at the 2023 Minor League Baseball Awards ceremony where he earned Minor League Pitching Prospect of the Year honors.
Thorpe wasn’t on a lot of people’s radars coming into the year, having sat out the prior season to prepare after being drafted 61st in the 2022 MLB draft. However, as Thorpe puts it himself, “I don’t think it could have gone much better.”
The 23-year-old right-hander lit it up by all accounts for High-A before getting promoted to Double-A Somerset toward the end of the campaign. Thorpe led all of Minor League baseball with 182 strikeouts and finished fourth among all qualified Minor League pitchers in ERA (2.52). Across 23 starts, Thorpe had a whopping 14-2 record before suffering an injury to his non-throwing shoulder that would sideline him for the rest of the year.
The early exit was deemed too small an absence to discount the dominant display Thorpe put on all year, awarding him the Minor League Pitching Prospect of the Year Award over the likes of Cade Horton (Chicago Cubs) and Robby Snelling (San Diego Padres) who were both taken ahead of Thorpe in the 2022 draft.
Among other award winners was the MLB’s number one and six prospects, Jackson Holliday and Junior Caminero, who took home the Hitting Prospect of the Year and Breakout Player of the Year awards respectively. Thorpe also finished as a runner up for Minor League Debut of the Year behind Padres Minor League catcher Ethan Salas, who climbed up to Double-A as a 17-year-old. Not bad company for a pitcher who didn’t even enter the year as a top 100 prospect.
According to Thorpe, what separates the New York Yankees top prospect's game as a pitcher from others is his ability to mask his changeup as a fastball.
"I think it's just different than most changeups guys see," Thorpe said. "It mimics my fastball a lot. That's where I get the most swing and miss with the differential and how much it looks like my fastball. … Most changeups are more horizontal break, horizontal movement. Mine is pretty vertical. I'll get up to 18-20 inches of vertical on it, so it's basically a fastball almost, just 10 mph less."
So a 23-year-old stud arrives on the scene. With the starting rotation expected to take a big shift apart from Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole, what does New York do about this?
It is likely the Yankees won’t be in a hurry to bring the youngster up right away, being that Thorpe only made five starts with Somerset before missing the rest of the year due to his shoulder. It is possible he could start in Triple-A, but a short stint in Somerset to get him settled is a likely route New York could take in regards to Thorpe’s development.
Regardless of where he starts on Opening Day, it is clear to see the pinstripes have a potential star in Thorpe and there is no doubt that he has placed himself amongst the minor league elite, and should he continue at the level he played at this year, he will continue climbing the ranks and potentially even make his first MLB start next season. The pinstripes might have stumbled onto another young cornerstone piece for the future.
More must-reads: