Might promising prospect Everson Pereira be the eventual reply for the Yankees’ query mark in left discipline?

The trade deadline came and went on Tuesday with out the Yankees addressing their left discipline subject that has plagued them for many of the season.

The potential commerce candidates ranged from leases just like the Cubs’ Cody Bellinger and the Rockies’ Randal Grichuk to a longer-term play such because the Cardinals’ Dylan Carlson.

Bellinger and Carlson stayed put whereas Grichuk went to the Angels with out GM Brian Cashman calling about him, The Post’s Jon Heyman reported.

For now, that leaves the Yankees sticking with a mixture of Jake Bauers, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Billy McKinney in left discipline. Every have made high quality contributions at instances, with Kiner-Falefa excelling in a utility function, however the Yankees have been lacking an on a regular basis consistency on the place.

Getting into Thursday, that they had began 9 completely different gamers in left discipline who had mixed for a 0.5 fWAR, which ranked twenty sixth within the majors. Yankees left fielders had a slash line of .227/.299/.381, whereas defensively additionally they ranked twenty fifth with minus-six Outs Above Common, per Baseball Savant.

“It’s been [a position] we’ve tried to improve,” Cashman stated Tuesday after the deadline handed. “Getting your arms on it’s the tougher side of it. What’s been out there from the winter time with the choices we made, inside the budgets that we had — that is our highest payroll we’ve had — that’s what we needed to present for it.”

However twice in his post-deadline press convention, Cashman introduced up an fascinating identify that might assist, probably as quickly as the ultimate two months of this season however actually subsequent season as properly: Everson Pereira.

The 22-year-old outfielder, ranked the Yankees’ No. 5 prospect by Baseball America, is at the moment raking at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after being promoted there from Double-A Somerset final month. In his first 20 video games with the RailRiders getting into Thursday, Pereira was hitting .337 with a .963 OPS, 5 house runs, 25 RBIs and 26 strikeouts.

“The ability is what stands out,” SWB hitting coach Trevor Amicone stated Thursday in a telephone interview. “The constant potential to get the barrel to the ball and put it on a line someplace is the factor that catches individuals’s consideration. However he’s a whole hitter. Because the method turns into extra polished, the strikeouts are going to go down. It’s not one thing that’s an innate subject with him.”

Pereira, who’s already on the 40-man roster, can play all three outfield spots, however has began most frequently in heart and left. That makes him a candidate to probably discover a house with the Yankees subsequent 12 months, with left discipline nonetheless open and heart fielder Harrison Bader set to turn out to be a free agent.

However might Pereira probably arrive in The Bronx earlier than 2024?

“There’s guys attempting to make a reputation for themselves which have prospect worth, and on the identical time they’re hoping to get their likelihood to show it at this degree, whether or not it’s a Pereira as an example,” Cashman stated. “So we’ll see.”

The Yankees signed Pereira out of Venezuela for $1.5 million in 2017, when he was one of many high prospects within the worldwide signing interval. He has handled numerous accidents which have slowed his path some, as did the pandemic that worn out the 2020 minor league season. That was additionally when Amicone, beforehand a roving hitting coach within the group, first began working with Pereira remotely.

Later in 2020, the Yankees held an tutorial camp within the Dominican Republic for a lot of of their younger worldwide gamers, together with Pereira. They have been engaged on a drill centered on swing choices — priceless for a prospect that was recognized for having excessive chase charges — that Pereira was not taking as severely as he might have, which Amicone stated was not atypical for a 19-year-old on the time.

“I bear in mind stopping the drill and strolling as much as him and saying, ‘Look, right here’s the place you’re. Right here’s the massive leagues. All this area in between is your potential to make higher swing choices,’” Amicone stated.

They restarted the drill and Pereira was far more centered.

Then, throughout Pereira’s first sport at Triple-A on July 4, he went 2-for-5 with a house run in his first plate look. After considered one of Pereira’s at-bats, Amicone sat with him within the dugout and instructed him it was “superb how far you’ve come together with your swing choices and plate self-discipline.”

“His speedy response was, ‘Yeah, Papi. Between me and the massive leagues is swing choices. Gotta hold working,’” Amicone stated. “So it was actually a chills second as a coach. However he nonetheless feels that manner. He nonetheless feels there’s room for him to enhance that side of his sport. I feel that’s the factor that for me makes him thrilling, is that he’s not glad with the place he’s at. He’s not glad with the outcomes he’s gotten over the primary month. He is aware of that there’s loads of underlying metrics that he desires to enhance on which can be good for this degree.

“However he’s probably not all that excited about being a extremely good Triple-A hitter. He’s centered on being the perfect huge league hitter he can turn out to be.”

That plate self-discipline is the place Amicone stated Pereira has made the most important strides since 2020, even when he has nonetheless struck out in 28.8 p.c of his 277 plate appearances this season between Double-A and Triple-A.

However Pereira’s superior method on the plate has impressed these round him, particularly for a 22-year-old.

“The work that he does to arrange himself daily for the kind of pitcher that we face is one thing that’s shocked me right here,” Amicone stated. “His potential to match his swing and his method to the pitch shapes that we’re dealing with that day is one thing that you just usually solely see from guys at this degree who’ve spent loads of time within the huge leagues. So there’s no query — and a few of these guys that we now have on the staff have made that remark, a number of instances, that he’s extremely superior with that sort of factor for any person his age.”

To date at Triple-A, Pereira is chasing “considerably much less,” Amcione stated, forcing pitchers to problem him within the zone, for which he’s making them pay.

“However that’s all a part of the sport,” Amicone stated. “They may finally alter to him and the way he adjusts to that adjustment goes to be what determines the extent of contribution he’s able to making long-term.”

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Severino’s seek for his ‘stuff’ continues

Luis Severino will begin for the Yankees Friday night time towards the Astros, which wasn’t always a given after his final begin on Sunday towards the Orioles. There was the potential for him to lose his rotation spot after posting an 11.22 ERA in 5 July begins, however he was additionally a candidate to be traded on the final 12 months of his contract.

“I knew I used to be going to pitch. I used to be going to begin. I didn’t know if it was going to be right here or some other place,” Severino stated Wednesday. “However I feel everyone was ready to see what occurred on the commerce deadline. However I’m actually pleased that I can begin for the New York Yankees once more.”

Some have requested whether or not Severino might use a stint within the minors, like Alek Manoah did with the Blue Jays, to work out his points in a low-stress surroundings. However, for one, not like Manoah, Severino must consent to being despatched down (as a result of he has greater than 5 years of main league service time), and second, the right-hander says that has by no means been mentioned with him.

“The factor is, the stuff is there,” Severino stated. “It’s not like I’m strolling 10 guys each begin. The stuff is there. I’m simply lacking my spots. … However if you wish to be good, you need to be like Gerrit Cole. It’s important to grind by way of these at-bats and attempt to get higher.”

Bumper crop

After a tricky first few months of the season at Double-A Somerset, Jasson Dominguez simply completed off a powerful July. The Yankees’ high outfield prospect, who remains to be simply 20 years outdated, hit .297 with a .778 OPS in 24 video games in July.

And but Dominguez might not have even had the perfect month of any hitter on his staff. Tyler Hardman, a 24-year-old third baseman, was named the Jap League Participant of the Month after hitting 10 house runs in 21 video games with a .968 OPS. Getting into Thursday, his 26 house runs on the season led all of Double-A.