{"id":99068,"date":"2025-04-11T16:51:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T20:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=99068"},"modified":"2025-04-11T16:52:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T20:52:52","slug":"a-notable-positive-and-negative-from-the-yankees-minor-leagues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/11\/a-notable-positive-and-negative-from-the-yankees-minor-leagues\/","title":{"rendered":"A Notable Positive and Negative from the Yankees Minor Leagues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weeks into the New York Yankees regular season, many positives are glowing game by game, while the flaws are already known. The Yankees minor leagues also catch the limelight for the good and the bad. This includes Roderick Arias, Spencer Jones, and Brandon Leibrandt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The major league team on the field has been on a tear, putting up phenomenal offensive showings. Recently, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/06\/yankees-farm-system-ranked\/\" target=\"_self\">farm system rankings<\/a> have been released by Major League Baseball. The Yankees don\u2019t look good in that sense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On a positive note, one pitcher has been illuminating himself in the minor leagues. A decorated-experienced left-handed pitcher, Brandon Leibrandt has started off his season in the minors on a good note and will get management&#8217;s consideration for his return to the big leagues.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Top Prospect Roderick Arias and Spencer Jones Are off to a Quiet Start in the Minor Leagues\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Yankees expect their top prospects to be polished and producing early on this season. Jones and Ariask are currently under the radar, and expectations are high. Jones is expected to reach the big leagues this season, while Roderick has a year or so.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yankees star prospect Jones started the year in Double-A Somerset and seems to be struggling. So far in the minor leagues this season, Jones has been in five games with 22 plate appearances and 16 at-bats. What has he done with those? Almost sweet nothing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He\u2019s recorded four hits, one being an extra base hit and the other being a double. Jones has two RBIs, scoring five times, striking out seven times, and walking five times. His batting average is at a weak .250, with a somewhat impressive .455 on-base percentage and .500 slugging percentage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You think Jones is scary? Arias\u2019 performance is horrible at the start of the year. The middle infielder\u2019s bat has been almost non-existent. He has five games played, 25 plate appearances, 21 at-bats, and only one sad hit. Arias has recorded one RBI, one run scored, nine strikeouts, and four walks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His batting average is currently .048, with a .200 on-base percentage, and .095 slugging. These players&#8217; performances to kick start the year keep the farm system below the ranking it could be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>LHP Brandon Leibrandt is a Considerable Option for the Teams Bullpen\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most teams in the league are battling similar issues, and these lay in the bullpen. The Yankees are down two of their key <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/07\/yankees-face-decision-schmidt-returning\/\" target=\"_self\">starting pitchers,<\/a> and have appropriately mitigated that situation. Their bullpen is still hit or miss.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One pitcher in the minor leagues has re-entered the limelight and may be considered for a return to the show. Brandon Leibrandt is a left-handed pitcher in the Yankees minor leagues, currently playing in triple-A for the Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paul Goldschmidt vs. Brandon Leibrandt Live Batting Practice with Yankees (2025 MLB Spring Training)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Rll7YV1-uQ8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The left-handed pitcher has two major league seasons and nine seasons in the minor leagues. He was drafted twice, most recently in the sixth round of the 2014 draft by the Philadelphia Phillies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leibrandt\u2019s two major league seasons were with the Miami Marlins in 2020 and the Cincinnati Reds in 2024. The Yankees picked him up in the offseason.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leibrandt\u2019s statistical line has been impressive so far in the minors. He\u2019s pitched in three games with a 1-0 record and a total of 14 innings pitched. The reliever has only allowed three earned runs on eight hits.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He\u2019s struck out 16 hitters, walking eight, and holds a 1.93 ERA. The reliever&#8217;s work style doesn\u2019t come close to overpowering or even generic power. Leibrandt barely reaches 90 mph on his fastball. His style also compares slightly to Ryan Yarbrough.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Leibrandt&#8217;s Pitches<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leibrandt has five pitch options: a changeup, slider, four-seam fastball, sinker, and sweeper. He\u2019s heavily reliant on his changeup and slider, and can locate the below-average velocity fastball.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leibrandt forces bad contact and forces a ton of roll-over contact. He has a career <a  href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/savant-player\/brandon-leibrandt-605335?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cAIR\u201d<\/a> (addition of fly balls, line drives, and pop-outs) of 52.9%. In 2024, his AIR was 44%. The reliever could find <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/20\/yankees-bullpen-looking-dominant-2025-season\/\" target=\"_self\">new life in the bullpen<\/a> in the Bronx and be effective.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Weeks into the New York Yankees regular season, many positives are glowing game by game, while the flaws are already known. The Yankees minor leagues also catch the limelight for the good and the bad. This includes Roderick Arias, Spencer Jones, and Brandon Leibrandt.\u00a0 The major league team on the field has been on a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5126,"featured_media":99077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[28942,28560,2599],"class_list":["post-99068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yankees","tag-brandon-leibrandt","tag-roderick-arias","tag-spencer-jones"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99068"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99076,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99068\/revisions\/99076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}