The Yankees keep finding pitching depth in places that don’t always grab the spotlight, and Ben Grable is starting to look like the next name that deserves attention.
He’s been overshadowed in the system by Carlos Lagrange, Ben Hess and Elmer Rodríguez, but Grable made his presence felt at the Futures Game with a fastball that stands out for more than raw speed. The pitch jumps into the zone with life and produces swings and misses at a ridiculous rate.
That matters because Grable is not far removed from college ball. He pitched at Indiana University just last year before the Yankees took him in the 11th round of the 2025 MLB Draft. Even with that limited track record, there’s a real path for him to get major league innings this season if the organization wants to push the button.
The case starts with the fastball. According to the New York Post’s Mark W.
Sanchez, Grable’s four-seamer averages 96.1 mph and creates “20.5 to 21 inches of induced vertical break,” which makes hitters see the ball as if it’s rising. Sanchez noted that the only pitchers getting that kind of movement are Alex Vesia, Tobias Myers and Dylan Lee, and none of them bring Grable’s velocity.
Double-A Somerset manager James Cooper put it this way, according to Sanchez: “It's a unique profile and shape in comparison to a lot of other fastballs out there,” Double-A Somerset manager James Cooper said, according to Sanchez. “Just when teams were starting to figure that out, that's when he started landing the secondary stuff, and I think that's what's been making him special.”
The results have backed up the buzz. In his first minor league season, Grable has 49 strikeouts in 31 innings. At High-A, he posted a 100th-percentile 58.6% strikeout rate, along with a 97th-percentile strike percentage of 69.1% and a weighted on-base average of .203, according to Prospect Savant.
The move to Somerset hasn’t slowed him down. He has 17 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings at Double-A, and his recent run included 1.2 scoreless innings to stretch his scoreless streak to 9.1 consecutive innings. In that span, he has 11 strikeouts and three walks.
If the Yankees think that’s too aggressive, the rest of baseball has already shown how quickly a pitcher can jump levels when the stuff is loud enough. The Blue Jays did it with Trey Yesavage, who was pitching for the East Carolina Pirates in 2024 before getting a cup of coffee in the big leagues in 2025 and then carving up the Dodgers on the biggest stage.
Cam Schlittler is another example the Yankees can point to. He reached Triple-A with just 25 1/3 innings there and 85 1/3 in Double-A, never touching 100 innings at any level, yet he has become one of the best pitchers in the sport. Grable would arrive with even less mileage, but the logic is the same: if the pitch mix can miss bats in the majors, why wait?
Grable himself has pointed to Schlittler as a model, saying, “His stuff's pretty electric.”
There is still a roster hurdle. The Yankees would need to open a spot on the 40-man roster, either through a trade or by designating someone for assignment.
Even so, the argument is hard to ignore. Young pitchers around the game have already shown they can help a club right away, and Grable has the kind of fastball that makes a call-up worth considering. The Yankees may not have planned for it when the season began, but they should be thinking about it now.
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