Yanks' 26-year-old prospect thriving after unconventional path
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Every player has a unique path to pro ball, one filled with his own detours. It took Tony Rossi six years, three different collegiate stops and one rehab from Tommy John surgery, but the 26-year-old has nonetheless emerged as a relief weapon down on the Yankees’ farm.
That didn’t look like it would be the case in the spring of 2019, when Rossi posted a 5.26 ERA and walked 32 batters in 51 1/3 innings for Division II West Florida. An Orlando native, he would then transfer to the State JC of Florida (Manatee-Sarasota) before eventually finding his way to UNC Charlotte. But he missed all of the 2023 season after he injured his elbow. He needed a place where he could show off his revamped stuff against premium competition.
Enter: The MLB Draft League.
Rossi made five starts for Mahoning Valley that summer and stacked up 25 strikeouts over 17 1/3 frames. The high punchout (and walk) totals carried over into his final year with Charlotte, but at 25 years old, he didn’t hear his name called during the 2024 Draft. Then came the Yankees, offering a $10,000 signing bonus and an opportunity for the undrafted free agent.
There often aren’t many spots carved out for relievers on a club’s Top 30 Prospects list, namely because track record is often limited and results can be volatile. But the choice to have Rossi open the 2026 season at No. 30 for the Yankees has looked right during what has been an enormous breakout campaign.
The only blemish on Rossi’s ledger thus far in 2026 came more than two months ago. Appearing in the 11th inning for High-A Hudson Valley on April 7, he yielded a pair of runs on three hits in just his second outing of the season.
Since then, Rossi, who was promoted to Double-A Somerset last Friday, has gone 17 consecutive appearances without allowing a run. In that span, batters have just five hits, while he has posted a 26/3 K/BB ratio. His .104 BAA, 0.59 WHIP and 0.89 ERA are all best among Yankees Minor Leaguers with at least 20 innings pitched this year.
The term “Wiffle-ball slider” gets used when describing a bender that is so nasty that it looks like the pitcher isn’t throwing a regulation baseball, but rather a weightless, backyard-style offering. But Rossi’s slider is very real and very filthy. Check this out:
The 6-foot-3 righty chewed up the lower Minors in 2025 with his mid-80s slider that generated a better than 52 percent swing-and-miss rate. He couples that behemoth with a fastball that sits in the mid 90s and can flirt with triple digits, all while generating some serious armside run. He also has a split-change in his arsenal, and those three offerings have helped him to dominate lefties, who are batting just .065 against him this season.
While the raw stuff has always been there, Rossi has found success in 2026 particularly due to what all pitchers hope to find: the ability to throw strikes. He walked 5.6 per nine during his three seasons of college ball and 5.2 last year; through his first 19 appearances this year, he’s more than halved that number down to 2.2. His 34.7 K-BB percentage ranks sixth among all pitchers in the Minors with at least 20 frames under their belt. For further context, the Padres’ Mason Miller leads the Majors with a 40 percent K-BB rate, but no other big leaguer hurler has a mark that exceeds Rossi’s.
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The Yankees have made something of a habit of discovering under-the-radar relief gems as undrafted free agents in recent years. Harrison Cohen (No. 27) joins Rossi on the Yankees’ Top 30 Prospects list after back-to-back seasons posting an ERA south of 2.00. Hueston Morrill represented the club during the Arizona Fall League last year after posting one of the most dominant single-season performances from a reliever this decade across Minor League Baseball.
Bullpen turnover can happen quickly at the Major League level, after all. Three of the Yankees’ key current relievers -- David Bednar, Camilo Doval and Jake Bird -- weren’t in the organization prior to last year’s Trade Deadline. Premium stuff is premium stuff, no matter the signing bonus.
Sometimes you take a shot on a high-octane arm you believe in. You never know what you’ll find.