After an unmercifully cold and wet start to the season, fans of the northernmost club in the 12-team South Atlantic League -- the Hudson Valley Renegades -- were finally able to soak up some sun at Heritage Financial Park. The gates had opened ahead of a 6:05 p.m. game against the Wilmington Blue Rocks, and whether those trickling into the 5,400-seat ballpark were donning ’Gades gear, Yankees colors or those of the Washington Nationals’ High-A affiliate, nearly all wore smiles. Summer was right around the corner, and a light breeze coming off the Hudson River wafted the aroma of chargrilled burgers across the heavenly atmosphere.
Theme nights are a common sight across Minor League Baseball, and on this particular midweek evening in Dutchess County -- about 50 miles north of Yankee Stadium as the crow flies -- a celebration of the sitcom Friends made for a fitting backdrop. From the grateful recipients of the giveaway jerseys to the couples taking pictures on the show’s famous orange “Central Perk” couch to the toddlers padding around the concourse who knew nothing of Ross or Rachel, the vibe was decidedly friendly. At the Sloop Brewing Beer Balcony in right field and Benmarl Winery’s rustic wine bar behind third base, conversations flowed as freely as the locally crafted spirits.
This year marks Hudson Valley’s fifth as a Yankees affiliate, but from Binghamton to Oneonta to Albany, upstate New York has been home to various Yankee farm clubs for nearly a century. So, when one of those ballpark conversations -- between a twentysomething fan and a man several decades his senior -- turned to the best pitching prospects they had ever watched, the older gentleman recalled a name that hadn’t crossed the generational divide.
Brien Taylor was the Yankees’ most recent No. 1 overall pick, a 6-foot-3 left-handed starter with a cannon for an arm. In 1991, his 38-year-old agent, Scott Boras, secured the first seven-figure signing bonus in Draft history for the ballyhooed high school pitcher. Two years later, the 21-year-old from North Carolina lit up radar guns across the Double-A Eastern League, going 13-7 for the Albany-Colonie Yankees and striking out 150 batters while allowing just seven homers in his 27 starts.
Like any curious mind with a WiFi connection, the younger fan whipped out his phone to seek more information about the mysterious phenom. “He never made it to the Majors!” he was astonished to discover.
It’s true that a shoulder injury suffered in a fight while coming to the defense of his brother effectively ended Taylor’s career. But the reality is that whether due to stalled progression or off-field issues, even some of the best prospects never make it to the top. Still, if the fan at Hudson Valley wanted to get an actual glimpse of a pitcher with Major League potential, all he needed to do was look up from his screen. On a nightly basis this season, the mound at Heritage Financial Park has been graced by some of the most electric arms in the Yankees’ farm system -- hurlers whose dreams of reaching the big leagues appear more realistic with every turn through the rotation.
“It’s not too common to have a pitching staff that’s this good, to have this many guys all on the same team and all pitching well,” said 2024 first-round pick Ben Hess. “We’re all working together every day, so it’s nice to see guys’ work paying off on the mound.”
There is room to grow, of course, and these 22- and 23-year-olds are working diligently to hone their craft and be ready whenever their name gets called. The lessons that they are learning at Hudson Valley go well beyond getting the most out of their individual skills, though. Sure, they’re becoming better, smarter pitchers. They’re also becoming Yankees pitchers, first intrinsically, eventually, maybe, literally.
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The vibes at Hudson Valley were as upbeat on the field as they were in the stands. Although no one was singing The Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There for You” while getting in their pregame work -- at least not within earshot of reporters -- there was plenty of smiling and joking in English and Spanish as several Renegades kicked a soccer ball around the field.
The team was still buzzing about the previous day’s masterful performance by Carlos Lagrange. Being aggressive in the strike zone is a mantra for most pitchers, and it is certainly part of the Renegades’ DNA. Lagrange (pronounced luh-GRON-hey) had gotten away from that in a poor performance at Winston-Salem his last time out, but the 6-foot-7 right-hander with the triple-digit heat rebounded by taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning and twirling a season-high 6 2/3 frames of one-run ball on just 80 pitches.
“We kind of needed to see that,” said Renegades manager James Cooper, who is in his first year at the helm after managing the Single-A Tampa Tarpons in 2024 and earning 2023 “Manager of the Year” honors in the Florida Complex League. “We needed to see Carlos have a bad outing and see how he bounced back from it. I just think he checked the box on that for us, and he checked the box for himself on that, as well.”
Cooper and Renegades pitching coach Demetre Kokoris know that talents such as Lagrange won’t be at Hudson Valley for long. Their goal while they have them is to sharpen their overall game and equip them with an understanding of what to expect at the next level in terms of how to prepare for their starts and take advantage of the resources available to them. The manager likens it to Chick-fil-A: Whichever location you visit, the sandwiches are all made the same way.
“We want them to get that same impression as they work their way up, where the only things that change are the faces of the coaches and the places that you’re playing,” Cooper said. “But as far as the game-planning process, the advanced scouting, the way they execute, it’s going to all remain the same.”
As fate would have it, Lagrange’s eight-strikeout gem against Wilmington was his last at High-A. The 22-year-old Dominican Republic native was promoted to Somerset on June 3 and promptly won his first Double-A start. The Renegades plugged the hole in their rotation with last year’s sixth-round pick, Griffin Herring -- a 22-year-old left-hander who was Paul Skenes’ teammate at LSU and who had dominated in eight starts with the Tampa Tarpons, earning Florida State League Pitcher of the Month honors for April. Herring continued to shine at High-A, producing quality starts in each of his first two appearances for the Renegades.
Of the starting pitching depth in the Yankees’ system, Kokoris said, “We’re blessed with riches from that standpoint.”
The 41-year-old pitching coach had heard the hype regarding the starting staff he would be molding in his first year with the organization after having spent the previous two as bullpen coach for the Texas Rangers’ Triple-A team at Round Rock, but he learned during his time at Cal State Fullerton to eliminate expectations and see things for what they are. It didn’t take long for him to be convinced that the talent was real.
“To have them perform the way that they have, it’s been fantastic,” Kokoris said. “You can’t ask for much more.”
Most of the hype centered on the Yankees’ first two picks in last year’s Draft, Hess and Bryce Cunningham. Both are 6-foot-5 right-handers out of the SEC -- Alabama and Vanderbilt, respectively -- seeing their first pro action this year. Both are 22 years old, with mid-90s fastballs and excellent changeups, although their pitches have different profiles: Hess’ fastball tails away from lefties and his changeup has more depth to it than Cunningham’s, while Cunningham’s fastball has some cut to it, running in on lefties.
Both were getting great results to begin the season.
Before being slowed by a couple stints on the 7-day injured list, Cunningham -- the No. 4-ranked prospect in the Yankees’ system, according to MLB Pipeline -- was averaging six innings in each of his first seven starts, winning five.
“Bryce has been awesome for us,” Hess said. “He’s just a great competitor. He attacks the zone with four really good pitches. Whenever he’s out there, you get the feeling that you’re going to win the game. He threw a ton of innings in college, threw a lot of big games, and you can tell. He’s got a great demeanor out there.”
Teammates were just as awed by Hess’ start. Through mid-June, MLB Pipeline’s No. 3 Yankees prospect (behind infielder George Lombard Jr. and outfielder Spencer Jones) was among the South Atlantic League leaders in strikeouts (59) and K/9 (13.3). He had allowed 27 hits in 40 innings -- including just one home run -- for a 6.1 hits per nine rate that was third among pitchers with at least eight starts.
Facing SEC hitters using aluminum bats steeled him for the challenges of pro ball, Hess said, but more important to his success is his own mental fortitude.
“Once you get out there, you’re in compete mode,” said the Charleston, Ill., product. “I don’t really think about an alter ego or anything, but I love to compete, I love to win, and when I get on the mound, you’re in game mode. I like to think that I’m a pretty fierce competitor out there, and I want to win for my teams.”
Or, as catcher Tomas Frick put it, “Ben thinks he’s better than everyone, which is good.”
Prior to Omar Martínez’s June 24 promotion to Somerset, he and Frick handled the bulk of the backstop duties for Hudson Valley, earning trust and, as a result, increased responsibilities from their pitchers and coaches alike. The Renegades’ relatively inexperienced pitching staff could not have blossomed the way it did without the catchers taking advantage of the myriad resources available, particularly when it comes to advance scouting.
“The biggest thing for new Draft guys is creating a game plan,” said right-handed starter Josh Grosz, an 11th-round pick out of East Carolina in 2023 who earned a promotion from Tampa last August and was having another strong campaign in his second season at Hudson Valley. “In college, the coaches call every pitch for you, so you’re kind of just a robot. In this organization, no matter where you are, it’s on you as a pitcher and a catcher to come up with a game plan.”
Frick was behind the dish when Grosz, a 6-foot-4 Californian with a power changeup, went seven innings in back-to-back starts in late May. Martínez caught the first two June starts for Kyle Carr -- ranked 18th by MLB Pipeline, one spot behind Lagrange -- in which the left-hander compiled 12 strikeouts while allowing two runs combined. No matter who is on the mound or in the squat, Hudson Valley fans can expect a pitching performance well worth the price of admission.
“My hat goes off to our scouting department for finding these guys, and it goes off to our player development department,” Cooper said. “It is extremely exciting, watching guys go out there and be good at their job and be good at their craft.”
To pitch in Yankee Stadium and stick in the big leagues is the ultimate goal, but these hurlers know that refining their command, throwing strikes and getting outs aren’t the only factors at play. To be a Yankee takes something more.
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Like Hess and Cunningham, Will Warren got his first taste of pro ball at Hudson Valley. Now a member of the Yankees’ rotation, back in 2022, Warren was an eighth-round pick out of Southeastern Louisiana learning to navigate unfamiliar terrain. What helped him thrive and earn a promotion to Double-A Somerset after just eight starts was leaning on his fellow starters.
“The closeness and the glue with the staff is real, it’s there,” Warren said. “You have the same common goal; you’re all working your butt off. You gain respect and have a closer friendship with those guys because you know that they’re working their tails off as much as I’m working my tail off, and so you can have a little friendly competition of, I’m going to push you if you push me.”
That ethos prevails three years later. When Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz was acquired by the Yankees last December in exchange for catcher Carlos Narváez, the Puerto Rico native didn’t know quite what to expect. A fourth-round pick of the Red Sox in 2021, Rodriguez-Cruz had only known the Boston organization. But through 12 starts with Hudson Valley this season, the 21-year-old right-hander with the six-pitch mix had posted a 2.59 ERA and had yet to allow a home run -- and was feeling right at home among his new teammates.
“Ever since I got here, I’ve felt welcome,” the Yankees’ No. 6 prospect said. “We push each other just by trying to be our best every start. Even when we don’t have those good moments, we try to motivate each other to go out and compete.
“It’s been fun all season.”
Having fun is certainly a big part of the Minor League experience, from the ballpark to the bus rides and everything in between. During home series, Hess is one of several Renegades who commutes to work from an apartment complex about 20 minutes away, where he lives with his wife and their infant son, Theodore. “We’re all in the same little area, and it’s been awesome, really,” he said. Once players arrive at the field, they know there’s work to be done, but they still find time to play frisbee or “just goof off.”
“We’ve got some good traditions, some good locker room things that we do, but I’ll keep that in the locker room,” Hess said, laughing. “The vibe’s pretty light.”
Warren looks back fondly on those days, when part of the education was developing relationships and discovering personality quirks. “Richard Fitts was a ‘Dad joke’ guy,” he said. “I had to learn that over spending time with him.” It’s no different now, only that Warren gets to lean on the railing of a big league dugout during games and talk shop with the likes of Max Fried, Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón. The common thread, Warren observed, is that at every level, the Yankees are rife with high-character guys.
“I think the org does a good job of picking that out when we draft guys,” he said. “There’s nobody that’s a bad person here. I think they kind of weed that out, which is why you’re able to relate to everyone. Our clubhouse, we’re as thick as thieves up here, but you can go all the way down the Minor League system, and I think you would find that in all clubhouses, everyone is close together.”
There’s one more throughline that runs all the way up from the low Minors to the Bronx: winning. Through June 10, the Yankees (40-25) and Renegades (35-22) had nearly identical winning percentages (.615 and .614, respectively). And while that was good enough for first place in the American League East, Hudson Valley sat third in its division. There was still plenty of season ahead, though, and no matter how many players end up getting promoted (or potentially traded), Renegades fans could plan on singing “New York, New York” after the final out at Heritage Financial Park just as often as Yankees fans do in the Bronx, thanks, in large part, to the outstanding work -- and friendship -- of their starting staff.
“The camaraderie comes from watching another guy go out there and be very successful, and it just naturally increases the competition in a positive way,” said Cooper. “We’ve been able to reap those type of benefits as an organization, and also as a team here in Hudson Valley.”
Nathan Maciborski is the executive editor of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the July 2025 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.