Yankees’ Chase Hampton Makes His Presence Known
Righthander Chase Hampton didn’t stay under the radar for long.
Drafted in the sixth round last year out of Texas Tech, the 22-year-old Hampton entered the season with little fanfare before quickly establishing himself as one of the Yankees’ top prospects.
To underscore that point, he earned a promotion to Double-A Somerset in mid June after striking out 77 batters in 47 innings to go with a 2.68 ERA in nine starts for High-A Hudson Valley.
Hampton skipped Low-A Tampa entirely this spring, after he was shut down last summer after New York drafted him.
“I actually wasn’t surprised about that,” the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Hampton said. “I’m a big competitor, and throughout spring training, that was my goal, to not start out so low.
“I wanted to start out as high as possible. I guess the organization saw something in that, and I’m grateful that they did. It’s worked out ever since.”
Now using a pitch mix that’s been bolstered by the addition of a cutter and slider, Hampton has blown hitters away with a well-commanded fastball that sits between 93-95 mph.
He didn’t use his changeup at all in his June 18 Double-A debut in which he allowed two earned runs in six innings and struck out eight.
“The changeup is really good also,” Somerset pitching coach Grayson Crawford said. “But the addition of the cutter, the curveball plays to both (batting) hands, the slider is there, and then obviously he has a really good fastball also.”
Hampton finds himself on a similar trajectory to righthander Will Warren, the Yankees’ 2021 eighth-rounder who quickly ascended to Double-A in 2022 and reached Triple-A this season.
While Hampton hopes he can climb the ladder just as fast, the fiery Texan said he doesn’t want to “play GM” and is focused on the task at hand.
“With everything going on, I’m just trying to go out there and be the best I can on the mound,” Hampton said, “and hopefully everything else works out for itself.”
