Chance Adams has had enough. The star prospect rocketing through the farm system wants to see the Yankees already.
From his apartment.
“MLB.com has stupid blackout restriction crap,” Adams vented over the phone when asked if he has been watching the big league team. “So I usually can’t watch the game on my app. And I never watch TV — we don’t even have internet at my apartment. I usually never get to watch it. But I’ll check the boxscore and see how guys did. I usually just check the pitching stats when Monty [Jordan Montgomery] pitches, want to check up on him.”
Adams may be an injury away from not needing the “100 and whatever dollar” app to see the team he aspires to play for. Since being promoted from Double-A Trenton, the 22-year-old Adams has been nearly unhittable with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, posting a 1.57 ERA with 27 strikeouts in 23 innings. Opponents have hit just .147 off of him, and he’s coming off a six-inning, one-hit, 12-strikeout gem Wednesday.
“I felt good,” Adams said nonchalantly. “Just locating well, which I was happy with. Just getting ahead of hitters.”
Adams, with a mid-90s fastball and sharp slider to go with a big-time curveball and changeup, has excelled wherever the Yankees have placed him. The fifth-round pick in the 2015 draft has a minor league ledger of 23-3 with a 1.96 ERA.
Now he’s playing with the likes of Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier, Tyler Austin, Dustin Fowler and Tyler Wade, an enviable nucleus seen as the future of the Yankees. The Bombers haven’t had any starting pitcher injuries this year — the five in their rotation have made every start — and Adams insists he won’t look ahead.
“Not one bit,” he said, when asked if the clubhouse talks about the future. “We just focus on the stuff we have to do daily. … We definitely don’t talk about that sort of thing. Just regular stuff, what we’re going to eat that day.”
After a 50-game suspension for testing positive for amphetamines, Mets prospect Gary Cornish made his return to the mound Thursday.
The right-hander, who can hit the mid-90s with his fastball and opened Mets eyes in Low-A Brooklyn out of the bullpen last year, is now a starter.
Cornish, a 19th-round 2016 pick from the University of San Diego, pitched to a 2.19 ERA last year and struck out 44 in 25 innings. He showed enough to earn a rotation crack.
“Very good for his first outing,” Single-A Columbia manager Jose Leger said of Cornish’s 6 ¹/₃ innings, in which he allowed three runs. “He kept his composure, he threw a lot of strikes. Good breaking ball. He commanded well all of his offspeed pitches.”