Headed into the 2017 season, the Yankees had a farm system that was highly-rated, but position-player centric. Seven of the top 10 prospects, including the top five, were position players — and that’s not including Gary Sánchez, who had exhausted his prospect status when he took over the American League for the final two months of 2016, and Greg Bird, who had missed the previous year due to injuries but had stormed onto the scene at the end of the 2015 season.
Cognizant of their organization’s makeup, the Yankees approached the 2017 MLB Draft with a clear strategy in mind: draft all the pitchers.