Minor league scouting notes on Ben Hess, Seaver King, Adrian Santana and more

New York Times

12-05-2025

I recently caught a handful of minor-league games featuring prospects at the High-A level from the Yankees, Rays, Orioles and Nationals organizations. Below are scouting reports on the most notable prospects I saw.
The Yankees promoted George Lombard Jr., their top prospect still in the minors, from High-A Hudson Valley to Double-A Somerset right before he was scheduled to come play a series 10 minutes from my house in Wilmington, Del. And I took that personally. I still went to a few of the games this past week, though, as Hudson Valley has a trio of the Yankees' top pitching prospects.
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Ben Hess was the Yankees' first-round pick in 2024 out of the University of Alabama, and he had his best and longest start of his pro career to date on Thursday night pitching for Hudson Valley at Wilmington, going 6 2/3 shutout innings and striking out nine. The first Wilmington batter reached via catcher's interference, and then Hess retired the next 17 batters, walking one in the sixth and allowing his first and only hit in the seventh.
It was an unusual outing, as Hess was 89-92 mph with the fastball in the first inning, then dialed it up to 93-96 for the next four innings before tapering back to 90-93 in the sixth and seventh. He dominated the Blue Rocks primarily with the fastball, using a 73-78 mph curveball as his primary secondary pitch, throwing a handful of sliders and maybe three or four changeups. He filled the zone with strikes, especially with the fastball, consistent with what he's been doing most of the year to date. The curveball is at least an average pitch and the slider could be as well, but I'd like to see him use them more, and he's going to have to develop the changeup to get lefties out at higher levels.
Right-hander Bryce Cunningham was the Yankees' second-round pick last year out of Vanderbilt, and so far this year he's been Hudson Valley's best starter, with 38 strikeouts and eight walks in 36 1/3 innings through Sunday's start. I caught the beginning of his Mother's Day outing, just to get a first glimpse, and through two innings he was 91-96 with a changeup that flashed plus, also showing a slider and a big-breaking 11/5 curveball. The fastball/changeup combo alone looked like it'd be enough to keep him as a starter; I just didn't see enough of the slider to say if it was an adequate third pitch. He raised his arm slot on the curveball, so while it had a huge break, hitters might pick that up out of his hand.
The Red Sox drafted right-hander Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz in the fourth round in 2021, and then traded the native of Puerto Rico to the Yankees in December for catcher Carlos Narváez. Rodriguez-Cruz has taken a step forward, boosting his strikeout rate to 32 percent in High A this year from 24 percent in his brief time there in 2024. He showed a five-pitch mix in a four-inning outing for Hudson Valley on Saturday night, working 93-96 with big arm-side run, along with a curve, slider, and sweeper, with clear ability to spin the ball. He also showed an above-average split-change with good arm speed and some arm-side fade. The slider was plus at times, just inconsistent, and nothing was worse than average in the arsenal.
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He had 40 command, though, and the delivery is very reliever-ish, with a high elbow in back and late pronation. That arm action doesn't usually lend itself to good breaking stuff, so perhaps Rodriguez-Cruz can buck the odds because he may end up with one or more plus breaking pitches. It's most likely he ends up in the bullpen, but the Yankees should give him every opportunity to start.
Nationals left-handed pitching prospect Jake Bennett started for Wilmington in the Mother's Day game as part of his rehab from September 2023 Tommy John surgery, his first outing in High A after a pair of starts for Low-A Fredericksburg. Bennett was 92-95 in his outing with four pitches, including a changeup, a big two-plane curveball at 77-80, and a sweeper at 81-85. His command and control weren't great; he walked two in three innings and threw just 36 of 64 pitches for strikes (56 percent), similar to his previous outing (58 percent). It's not uncommon for guys on their way back from elbow surgery to need more time to get their command and control back, but the good news is at least his stuff is intact.
I've seen a lot of Nationals 2024 first-round pick Seaver King's at-bats so far this year, and it hasn't been great, certainly not what I expected coming off a tremendous 2024 season that saw him go with the No. 10 pick in the draft and then hit well for Fredericksburg after he signed. He went 2-for-24 in the just-completed series against Hudson Valley, with six strikeouts, bringing his total on the season to 34 strikeouts in 119 PA (28.6 percent). His swing was off earlier in the year, and while it looks better now, I don't think he's gotten his timing back at all. He's always expanded the zone too much but made it work for him because he could hit pitches a little beyond the zone hard enough to make it count. Now he's expanding the zone and not seeing results there, or even in the zone, where I've seen him mistime a lot of fastballs he should wallop. I'm not giving up, not after just a month, but this isn't what I expected or wanted to see.
Catcher Caleb Lomavita, whom the Nats took with the comp-round pick (No. 39) they got from Kansas City right before last year's draft in the Hunter Harvey trade, has been better, hitting .277/.371/.376 so far this year, although the high OBP is a function of eight HBPs so far — he has been hit by pitches more times than he's walked (seven). He's not catching as well as I expected based on his reputation as a plus receiver in college. His arm is good, and he's definitely a great athlete for a catcher. It's something to monitor, though. And he could stand to take a pitch every now and then.
I saw Orioles right-hander Trey Gibson pitch for High-A Aberdeen a little over a week ago, and it was his best outing of 2025 to date, with 10 strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings. Gibson was 94-97 with a hammer slider up to 86, a cutter, and a handful of changeups. He's been much more effective this year against left-handed batters, even though he's still mostly fastball/slider against them; the slider breaks more vertically, and it's so sharp that at least for now it misses bats regardless of who's at the plate. Outside of that one outing, his line for the rest of the season so far is 19 1/3 innings, 23 hits, nine walks, and 23 strikeouts, allowing 21 runs in that span, so I'm not going to just overrate what I saw in that one outing. It was pretty darn good, though, and at the very least I could see him becoming a very good two-pitch reliever.
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Aidan Smith was the guy I most wanted to see for High-A Bowling Green, but he was a late scratch that day — between when I left the house and the first pitch. Rays 2023 comp. round pick (No. 31) Adrian Santana led off and had a terrible night, bouncing multiple throws from shortstop and striking out three times along with two weak groundouts. Émmanuel Pitre, Tampa's second-rounder in 2024, also struck out three times for Bowling Green, fanning twice on cutters from Gibson.
Outfielder Mac Horvath, acquired from the Orioles last August for Zach Eflin, got to Gibson for a long home run on a 96-mph heater, walking twice and striking out looking on three straight sliders (yes, all looking). Horvath's been on a tear of late, with seven homers in his last 11 games, and probably should move up to Double A since he's 23 and is repeating High A. The power is real, and he's got ball/strike recognition, but if pitchers can land off-speed stuff in the zone he has real trouble. I'd challenge him at the next level to see if pitchers there can force him to make the adjustment.
(Top photo of Hess: Tony Farlow / Four Seam Images via Associated Press)