Yankees top pitching prospect Ben Hess made his unofficial pro debut in Saturday night’s Spring Breakout game.Somerset Patriots
Saturday night’s Spring Breakout game will go down as the unofficial beginning to the career of a pitcher who could be the Yankees’ next homegrown ace.
Right-hander Ben Hess, the Yankees’ first-round selection in last year’s MLB draft, pitched two innings in relief against the Orioles. He struck out three and walked one, giving up two hits and one earned run.
Hess has been throwing in scrimmages and intrasquads behind the scenes since last summer, refining his arsenal. Saturday night marked the first time he’s pitched in a Yankees uniform against hitters from another team.
To say the Yankees are excited about what this right-hander and his potential would be an understatement.
“His ceiling is a top of the rotation starter,” Yankees director of pitching Sam Briend told NJ Advance Media before the loss to Baltimore at Ed Smith Stadium. “Physically, he’s maturing. Mentally, he’s starting to learn the game even more and get exposed to these situations. With the weapons he has, he’s a guy you look at as a future number one or two.”
Hess, 22, pitched collegiately at Alabama. The Yankees picked him in the draft with the 26th overall selection, the first of seven pitchers selected in a row to kick off that draft class. He’s now ranked as the Yankees’ No. 1 pitching prospect — fourth overall in the system — by both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America.
“I go at hitters,” Hess said, giving his own scouting report. “I’ve got a good fastball so I’m never afraid to use that. I wouldn’t say I’m trying to go out there and paint the corners. I’m just going right at guys.”
Hess recalled how pumped he was to be picked by the Yankees, knowing how great of a reputation the organization’s pitching department has for developing young arms. Since the draft, he’s been tasked with fine-tuning certain pitch shapes and refining his arsenal by making changes to some of his secondary pitches.
“He is the definition of a first-rounder when he’s at his best,” Briend said. “He’s 95 to 98 mph with his big-ride heater, monster curveball, we’ve improved the changeup to play off that. He had a good short slider, but it got lost between that curveball, so we’ve already started adding a bigger slider in there. He’s got plus stuff, plus makeup, he’s aggressive in the zone.”
Being that this is Hess’ first season of affiliate ball, the right-hander could climb multiple levels within the Yankees’ farm system in 2025. Hess isn’t worrying about getting to a certain team before the end of this season, though.
“The goal is to go out there and make all my starts,” Hess told NJ Advance Media. “Go out there, throw well, win games. That’s the thing as a pitcher. No matter what level you’re at, you want to get wins and make all your starts and overall, throw well, I don’t really have any good goals in terms of making it to this level or doing this or that, it’s more just go out, perform to the best of my abilities and rack up some wins.”
