Pico Kohn’s return to the mound has brought the Yankees exactly the kind of strange, hard-to-pin-down lefty they thought they were getting when they drafted him.
The High-A southpaw has been back from the injured list and wasting no time piling up swing-and-miss stuff. In five starts and six appearances, Kohn has put together a 1.99 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 22 2/3 innings. He has allowed 14 hits and issued 12 walks, so the command still has some cleaning up to do, but the bat-missing has been loud enough to carry the early results.
That has been the calling card from the start. Kohn came into the Yankees system as a fourth-round pick and a possible sleeper after being MLB Pipeline’s 122nd-ranked draft prospect in 2025. He was one of those pitchers the Yankees love to bet on: big college strikeout totals, a high ERA at Mississippi State, and enough raw stuff to make the organization think it could sort out the rest in the lab.
Then 2026 began with a setback. Kohn was placed on the minors’ 60-Day IL, a rough place for a pitcher trying to get his pro career moving.
But the injury stint didn’t end up wiping out his season. Once he got back, the results came quickly.
His latest outing only reinforced the point. In what was likely his final appearance on Wednesday, Kohn generated 12 whiffs on 66 pitches, an 18.2% whiff rate. He has repeatedly shown elite swing-and-miss ability when healthy, and the numbers have backed that up since his return.
What makes him so difficult to square up is the delivery. Kohn works with a finish that looks off-balance and awkward, stumbling left of the rubber as he releases the ball.
It’s the kind of motion that feels like it should get fixed the minute a pitcher enters a pro system. Instead, the Yankees have leaned into it, letting him keep the trait that has always helped him deceive hitters.
The command is still the question. Twelve walks in 22 2/3 innings make that clear. That’s the piece the Yankees are expected to keep working on once the winter arrives and there’s more time to sharpen things up.
For now, though, the bigger takeaway is simple: Kohn is back, the odd delivery is still intact, and the whiffs are still coming. That alone should be enough to keep him moving up more Yankees prospect lists.
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