Adeiny Hechevarria Targeted By Yankees?

From George King:

“The Yankees have been on him for a while,” said a scout who saw the 21-year-old shortstop work out recently in the Dominican Republic. “Two weeks ago, about 50 scouts watched him work out and the Yankees were there. They also have seen him in smaller workouts.”
Because the Red Sox gave 19-year old shortstop Jose Iglesias $8 million, industry sources expect the right-handed-hitting Hechavarria to command a $7 to $8 million signing bonus.
“Maybe more because his bat is better than Iglesias’,” a scout said.

The article goes on to quote another scout, one who believes Adeiny is ticketed for CF and could be a BJ Upton type player. A third scout noted that Hechevarria likely would have been a first round pick in last season’s draft. All of this seems a bit overblown. This is something that seems to happen a lot with international free agents, usually because there are a lot fewer independent scouts viewing these players and the players often limit their exposure to controlled workouts. As such, I would take everything in this article with a giant grain of salt.

That said, Adeiny seems to have drawn some interest from a number of MLB teams, and if the claim that he would have been a first rounder is true, it would behoove the Yankees to make a push for him. SS is a position of organizational weakness, as most of the prospects that they have at that spot profile to be nothing more than utility players. Furthermore, with an international draft likely to be discussed in the upcoming CBA negotiations, it makes sense for the club to make its presence felt on the international market while it still can. If they get lucky, they might just discover Jeter’s replacement.

Here is a scouting report on Hechevearria (h/t Pending Pinstripes).

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