The start of spring training also sometimes means the end of an era for prospects who haven’t progressed through their teams’ farm systems.
New York Yankees 2024 10th-round pick Joe Delossantos had the makings of an exciting development story. The Queens native was a standout outfielder at William and Mary, but he never got much of a chance to prove himself in the Yankees organization.
Last Thursday, the Yankees released Delossantos, according to the transactions log on his official roster page. He was on the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades roster to begin the year.
Delossantos spent nearly all of last season on the injured list, and got into just 10 games for the Hudson Valley Renegades and rookie-level FCL Yankees. He went 2-for-32 over that sample (.068 batting average) with four walks and 13 strikeouts.
In his first two professional seasons, Delossantos only managed 31 games played. The 24-year-old didn’t appear to have anything close to a regular role on the few farm teams he played for, so as much as injuries may have cost him, he was also simply buried in a crowded Yankees organizational depth chart that has churned out a lot of good minor-league outfielders of late.
At William and Mary, Delossantos put up a good, but not great .271/.373/.462 triple slash line as a senior, which might have lowered his draft stock a bit after putting up a much better OPS as a junior.
Now, just a year and a half after he was drafted, Delossantos will have to dig deep to stay on any sort of realistic path to the majors, assuming he still has the appetite to keep grinding.
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