The Yankees may have landed one of the more interesting international signings of the year by stepping into a situation that never fully settled in St. Louis.
Yostin Peña’s path to New York started with a Cardinals pre-agreement in January 2025 worth $300,000, part of a class that also included Juan Rujano at $750,000 and Miguel Hernández at $500,000, according to the original report from MLB.com’s Jesse Borek. But the deal never became official.
Reports at the time said MLB investigated and determined Peña’s identity was indeterminate, which led to the agreement being voided. No team explained the matter publicly, and Peña didn’t appear in affiliated ball in 2025 while everything got sorted out.
Once he was clear to sign elsewhere, the Yankees moved in and gave him $350,000 that fall. At the time, it was the sort of signing that barely made a ripple beyond prospect circles: an 18-year-old outfielder with no pro resume and a messy paper trail. Now it looks like a smart gamble.
Peña has been flat-out raking in his first pro season. Baseball America’s Roboscout rankings had him as the No. 8 hitter in the Dominican Summer League before his promotion, and the production backed it up.
In 37 DSL games, he hit .375/.457/.646 with 11 doubles, two triples, eight home runs, 24 walks and 27 strikeouts. Then he jumped to Low-A Tampa and kept going, batting .310/.333/.476 with a home run in his first 10 games there.
The underlying data only sharpens the case. Baseball America reported a 107.9 mph 90th-percentile exit velocity in the DSL, a 47.1% hard-hit rate and a 115.1 mph max exit velo, all of which pointed to at least 70-grade raw power on the 20-80 scale. The swing decisions are aggressive - a 48.7% swing rate and a 31.2% chase rate - but the damage has been loud enough to support it, with the bigger question being how his hit tool holds up as the pitching gets tougher.
Peña also started in the DSL All-Star Game, and in late July he signed with agent Scott Boras.
The scouting view matches the numbers. In a recent prospect chat, FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen described a swing that looks more controlled than Peña’s 6-foot-4, 205-pound frame might suggest.
He said Peña stays back on breaking balls while still punishing pitches he can pull. Longenhagen also compared the feel of Peña’s swing to Dodgers infield prospect Emil Morales, praised his plus speed in center field, and some fan comments went as far as a loose “young Aaron Judge” comparison based on the physical projection more than any track record.
Peña still isn’t on an official Top 30 list, and at 18 with this level of experience, he’s still a long way from a big-league debut. But the ingredients are there for his stock to keep rising: strong results, loud exit velocities and a move to the states where he’s still hitting.
For the Yankees, it’s the kind of low-cost international bet that can change the conversation fast. St.
Louis passed, New York acted, and for now the payoff is obvious.
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