BRIDGEWATER — To be playing Double-A baseball at 21 years old and after less than three months in professional baseball games says something about both that player’s maturity and talent level.
Chase Hampton is showing why he has a chance to be one of the best Yankees pitching prospects in recent memory — no small feat in an organization that has developed its share of impressive arms.
The Texas native was promoted to Somerset last week and had a strong debut with the Patriots on Sunday, hurling six innings with two earned runs, eight strikeouts and no walks.
“It’s definitely going by way quicker than I expected, but I’ve just been working hard and trying to keep my head down and just keep working,” Hampton said Thursday at TD Bank Ballpark.
Hampton, a right-hander ranked by Baseball America as the Yankees’ No. 6 prospect, has posted a 2.72 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in 53 innings (10 starts) between Somerset and Low-A Hudson Valley.
Most impressive, the 2022 sixth-round pick out of Texas Tech has struck out a whopping 85 batters. His 39.9 strikeout percentage ranks 13th in all of Minor League Baseball.
“For me I would say the ability to throw probably four pitches for strikes,” Hampton said of his strengths on the mound. “It took me a while to figure out how to do that, but once I really understood my body and how it works, it helped me out to achieve things on the mound that I never thought was possible. When it comes to my bread and butter, which is my fastball/cutter, I can throw those two pitches any time, anywhere in the zone, so I think that’s what helps me out.”
Hampton believes his best off-speed pitch is his curveball, which he has thrown since he was nine years old. He is also working on throwing his slider more often to both righties and lefties “just to throw another pitch in the mix and just try to get a couple more swings and misses,” as well as a changeup.
Hampton’s fastball sits in the mid-90s, but he said the key in pro ball has been learning to sustain that velocity throughout his outings rather than see dips in later innings.
Currently, his biggest point of emphasis is executing his fastball up in the zone.
“They believe I have a really good fastball, so I’m going to believe it and I’m going to use whatever they give me,” Hampton said. “If they think that my fastball plays in the zone, then I’m going to try to execute that as much as possible.”
MLB Pipeline recently wrote that Hampton possesses “high spin rates, good carry and some arm-side run,” but on the flip side, “to remain in the rotation, he’ll need to improve his control and refine his changeup to do a better job of keeping left-handers at bay. He has a strong 6-foot-2 build and a delivery with a long arm action and a relatively low release point.”
To that end, Hampton is not overly concerned with the 16 walks he has allowed in those 53 innings so far.
“I think that just comes with time with pitching,” Hampton said. “Growing up, I used to walk the house, but I would still punch out 10 guys in a game. I think that just comes with comfortability on the mound and knowing that you can get people out earlier in counts. And so just having them 0-2, and you can also get people out in 3-2 counts. So that’s where I’ve kind of settled in and become more comfortable on the mound. When a guy is 3-2, I can still punch him out.”
Part of Hampton’s immediate success in pro ball has come from the fact that he played two college seasons in the Big 12. He felt he had a chance to get drafted coming out of high school, but after his senior season was cut short by COVID-19, the decision to attend Texas Tech was easy.
“I think it was probably the smartest decision I’ve made was to go to college,” Hampton said. “Just for the maturity side and also just by getting in routine in college. You have school, you have practice, you have games. You’re traveling everywhere. You get to make friends, you get to make connections. I know you can do that here, especially out of high school, but I think college was the best route for me.”
The Yankees have seen no reason to limit his workloads much as Hampton has thrown more than 90 pitches in three straight starts.
“Whenever your body is in a routine, it gets used to what you’re doing,” Hampton said. “We’ve been drilled that in our brains around here, so since I’m on a good routine, a good arm care routine and a good throwing routine and everything, so it kind of helps me get back to 100 percent before the starts.”
Upon arriving to the Yankees last July, Hampton leaned on several coaches including Sam Briend and Brett DeGagne to develop in the offseason to be ready to start his career in High-A this past April.
While he understands that there will likely be some bumps in the road facing more advanced hitters now in the Eastern League, Hampton is confident with the tools at his disposal to potentially rise quickly through the Yankees’ farm system.
“I know they can’t do it for me, but me knowing what my strengths are and pitching to my strengths is what really helped me out,” Hampon said. “I think that’s the reason why I have the success I do.”
