Yankees select RHP Ty Hensley with their first-round pick
The New York Yankees tonight selected 18-year-old right-handed pitcher Ty Hensley out of Santa Fe High School in Edmond, Okla., with their first-round selection (30th pick overall) in the 2012 First-Year Player Draft.
Hensley, listed at 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, went 10-0 with a 1.52 ERA in 11 games as a senior in 2012, striking out 111 batters in 55.1 innings pitched en route to being named the 2012 Gatorade Oklahoma “Baseball Player of the Year.”
Hensley was ranked by Baseball America as the 11th-best pitcher—and 23rd-best overall player—in this year’s draft. He entered as the publication’s second-best player from Oklahoma and became just the seventh Oklahoma pitcher to be selected in the first round out of high school.
His father, Mike, was a right-handed pitcher who was drafted out of the University of Oklahoma by the St. Louis Cardinals in the second round of the 1988 First-Year Player Draft.
"We're excited to get a guy with such a high ceiling. He has the ideal body for a high school pitcher, as well as power stuff, and has the ability to be a high-end starter,” said Damon Oppenheimer, Yankees Vice President of Amateur Scouting. “He's demonstrated a quality makeup and has shown himself to be a hard worker, which makes him a quality pick for us."
The selection of Hensley marks the fifth straight year the Yankees have taken a high school player with their first selection in the First-Year Player Draft. Hensley is the first pitcher to be selected by the Yankees in the first round since RHP Gerritt Cole in 2008 (did not sign).
LHP CC Sabathia made the Yankees’ selection of RHP Ty Hensley live at the MLB Network studios. He was serving as the Yankees representative at the draft along with Yankees area scout Tim McIntosh.