The Yankees are calling up a top shortstop prospect Oswald Perazareports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter link). He’ll take one of the two additional spots available with the September expansion of the active roster. The other active roster spot will be filled by the activation of Marwin González from paternity leave, tweets Lindsey Adler of the Athletic Peraza is already on the 40-man roster, so New York won’t need to make any corresponding moves.
It’s the first big league call for Peraza, who has spent a bit more than six years climbing the minor league ladder. Originally signed by New York out of Venezuela during the 2016-17 international period, the 6’0″ infielder spent his first couple of seasons in rookie ball. He put himself firmly on the prospect radar by 2019, showing a high-contact approach as a 19-year-old in Low-A that year. The cancellation of the following minor league season cost Peraza a year of reps, but New York still felt there was a chance another team would take him in that year’s Rule 5 draft and carry him on the MLB roster in 2021.
The Yankees therefore added Peraza to the 40-man roster, and he’s occupied a spot there for the past couple of seasons as he’s continued to progress through the system. He mashed in a 28-game stint in High-A to start 2021, earning a quick promotion to Double-A Somerset. Peraza played most of the year there, hitting .294/.348/.466 with 12 home runs and 20 stolen bases through 79 games. That impressive age-21 season earned him a late-season cameo with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and plenty of public support on Top 100 prospect lists entering this year.
Peraza placed among the game’s top farmhands in preseason rankings at Baseball America, ESPN, The Athletic and FanGraphs. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel was the most bullish, slotting Peraza 25th leaguewide, but evaluators broadly agreed he was a plus defensive shortstop with power potential and bat-to-ball skills. Reports raised questions about his tendency to chase pitches outside the strike zone, but consensus opinion is that he has the physical tools to be an above-average regular at shortstop.
More to come.
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