With just 10 Triple-A games under his belt, New York Yankees outfield prospect Billy McKinney has already started to turn heads.
Billy McKinney is not included on MLB Pipeline’s list of the Top-30 New York Yankees prospects, but he sure is making a name for himself with the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
Since being called up to the highest level of minor league baseball from Double-A Trenton, the 22-year-old owns a .395/.439/.789 slash line with four home runs and an OPS of 1.228 in 10 games.
In his latest showcase, McKinney lined a home run on Sunday afternoon in the fourth inning off Zach Eflin — his fourth in eight games — to continue his breakthrough that began all the way back when he arrived at Yankees’ camp as a late invite after first baseman Tyler Austin broke a bone in his left foot.
The second option points to McKinney making his way into another organization. The lefty has already been involved in two blockbusters — traded from the A’s to the Cubs in the Jason Hammel and Jeff Samardzija deal in 2014 and then from the Cubs to the Yankees in the Aroldis Chapman deal last year — and is Rule-5 draft-eligible at the end of the 2017 season.
McKinney will need to be added the 40-man roster or any team could take him from the Yankees for virtually nothing. All in all, McKinney’s stock is unquestionably up from last year thanks to the show he’s putting on in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. And whether it’s with the Yankees or not, it could help him crack The Show sooner rather than later.