TAMPA, Fla. — It’s hard to miss Yankees pitching prospect Ben Hess when he’s sitting at his locker stall at Steinbrenner Field.
He’s 6-foot-5, 255 pounds and dresses in one of the front-and-center rollaways added for spring training to accommodate 70-player rosters.
The right-hander is a presence on the mound, too.
In his first big-league camp, the 2024 first-round draft pick out of Alabama threw three innings of live BP to some of the Yankees’ big boys on Wednesday.
From start to finish, Hess mostly impressed mixing high 90s fastballs with curves and sweepers.
Cody Bellinger gave Hess a scare scorching a liner right back at him, but he got the better of Aaron Judge, who whiffed chasing a nasty breaking ball.
“I thought Hess was really good, especially with his secondary stuff,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s got that full-starters’ arsenal. He has a good fastball.
“Especially today, I thought with the curveball and sweeper he did a really good job with the command and the ability to get back in counts with it. That was good to see.”
Hess had an excellent first pro season in 2025 while being challenged. He started out going 4-3 with a 3.51 ERA in 15 starts with High-A Hudson Valley, then jumped to Double-A Somerset and put up better numbers, 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA in seven outings.
In 103.1 combined innings, Hess piled up 139 strikeouts and walked 46.
The Moline, Ill., native probably will get to Triple-A this season, maybe from the outset.
MLB Pipeline ranks Hess as the Yankees’ No. 6 prospect.
Here’s a portion of its scouting report:
Hess can overpower hitters with a four-seam fastball that parks at 92-96 mph and peaks at 99 with armside run, and the flat approach angle and extension in his delivery make it more difficult to barrel.
While his curveball sits in the mid-70s, it gives him a second plus pitch with its ability to fool hitters thanks to its depth and sweep coming out of a low arm slot.
His mid-80s slider can feature two-plane depth at times but lost some sharpness last year, and he no longer trusts a fading mid-80s changeup that once looked like a potential solid offering.