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<\/p>\nNEW YORK \u2014 Antonio Gomez\u2019s eyes lit up. Sam Briend, the New York Yankees\u2019 director of pitching, half-joked with the catching prospect that with an arm as strong as his, the team should try him out on the mound sometime.<\/p>\n
\u201cOhtani?\u201d Gomez playfully replied, referring to Shohei Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers\u2019 two-way superstar.<\/p>\n
\u201cEh,\u201d Briend said, smiling, \u201cI don\u2019t think we can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gomez may not get a chance to slug 54 homers in the majors like Ohtani did last season, but the Yankees are giving him a chance to pitch. Less than a month into his transition, he\u2019s already touched 100 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he could be really special,\u201d Briend said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe delivery looks like it works,\u201d Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said. \u201cAnytime you can see that kind of velocity with a delivery that should be somewhat sustainable, it\u2019s interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Yankees have excelled at teaching pitching in recent seasons. They hope to do the same with former catcher Antonio Gomez. (Courtesy: Somerset Patriots)<\/p>\n
The Yankees made the switch official when they placed Gomez, 23, on the developmental list at Double-A Somerset on June 18 and started a throwing progression that has yielded some impressive bullpen sessions. Briend said the Yankees \u201cabsolutely\u201d plan for Gomez to pitch in minor-league games this season.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for the right-hander to begin sitting between 94-96 mph, occasionally touching 97 mph. In his fourth bullpen session, Gomez asked his coaches if, one time, he could just let it rip.<\/p>\n
The radar gun stunned everyone: 100 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven guys who throw 100 mph in games \u2014 you don\u2019t see them doing that very often in the bullpen,\u201d Briend said.<\/p>\n
The Yankees have also been impressed with Gomez\u2019s feel for pitching in these early stages. Briend said the team \u201creally didn\u2019t expect\u201d his command to be as good as it\u2019s been. Of course, despite all the excitement, Gomez\u2019s progress comes with a caveat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the pressure of getting out there and getting in games,\u201d Briend said. \u201cBut this kid fills it up. He\u2019s got a really simple, clean, easy delivery. It allows him to sequence and throw hard. We\u2019re not at the point where (he) can move the ball around to quadrants. But (he\u2019s) going to be in the hallway with plus-velocity, which is also kind of a special trait.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReally good arm,\u201d Blake said. \u201cReally good athlete. I think what the guys are excited about is the potential upside for a guy like that, who\u2019s got some arm strength and has shown it behind the plate. To have the aptitude back there and then try it out on the mound.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Yankees had high hopes for Gomez as a catcher, and he showed promise on both sides of the ball, with The Athletic\u2019s Keith Law ranking him as the organization\u2019s No. 5 prospect going into 2023. His bat seemed to stall, though, and several catchers in the Yankees\u2019 system appeared to surpass him.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025_04_27-Antonio-Gomez-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The Yankees internally discussed the idea of moving Antonio Gomez to the mound for about three years. (Courtesy: Somerset Patriots)<\/p>\n
The Yankees gave Gomez a $600,000 signing bonus out of Venezuela in 2018, betting on his big frame for a catcher (6-feet-2), his power potential and his arm strength. Baseball America called him the best defensive catcher in the Yankees\u2019 system after the 2022 and 2021 seasons, and he had a .748 OPS in 47 games at High-A Hudson Valley in 2024.<\/p>\n
But he struck out a lot (career 31.9 percent), and he hit just .140 with no homers and a .393 OPS in 35 games at Double-A Somerset, sharing time behind the plate with Rafael Flores, the Yankees\u2019 13th-ranked prospect. He finished his time at catcher with one hit over his final 34 at-bats before converting to pitching.<\/p>\n
The Yankees had internally discussed the idea of moving Gomez to the mound for about three years, Briend said. It was always clear to them that Gomez\u2019s arm strength was top-notch, but there was more to it. Coaches watched him play catch, and he\u2019d always hit his partner in the chest. When he played long toss, \u201cyou knew he could throw it a mile,\u201d Briend said. He displayed a cannon when trying to throw out runners at second base.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t glaring hitches or anything like that,\u201d Briend said. \u201cPretty clean delivery for throwing as hard as he did on flat ground. It was one of those situations where it\u2019s like, \u2018Man, this kid looks pretty good throwing as a catcher. Let\u2019s see how that translates to the mound.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that he does at his foundation is everything you want a pitcher to do when they\u2019re in practice, in terms of long toss, hitting your partner in the chest and having a clean, simple delivery. Those are things that you think might translate to the mound. Thought it was worth giving him a shot, as we have.\u201d<\/p>\n
They\u2019re being careful with Gomez. Another reason they thought he could make the switch was that, as a catcher, he already threw more than any other position player and could be at less risk of getting hurt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe volume of throwing was already kind of built,\u201d Briend said. \u201cNow it\u2019s more the skill of pitching.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Yankees have excelled at teaching the skill of pitching in recent seasons.<\/p>\n
Rookie Will Warren (eighth round, 2021) has become a key member of the rotation this year. Clarke Schmidt (first round, 2017) was also a major part of it this season before Tommy John surgery ended his year. Righty Luis Gil, whom the Yankees acquired while he was still in rookie ball, was the American League Rookie of the Year last year. Cam Schlittler (seventh round, 2022) gave up three runs in 5 1\/3 innings in a victory Wednesday night in his major-league debut. The Oakland Athletics (JP Sears, Mitch Spence) and the Houston Astros (Hayden Wesneski) both feature recent Yankees draftees in their starting rotations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re starting to get more starting pitching, which was a knock for a long time,\u201d Briend said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see these guys take the ball and prove that wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will Gomez join them in the majors? Will he wind up as a starter or a reliever? Will the experiment work at all? It may be too soon to tell. For now, though, the Yankees know one thing about Gomez.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s got a special arm, for sure,\u201d Briend said.<\/p>\n
(Photos of Antonio Gomez courtesy Somerset Patriots)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Antonio Gomez\u2019s eyes lit up. Sam Briend, the New York Yankees\u2019 director of pitching, half-joked…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":57216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,2228,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-57215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-new-york-yankees","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114835398621942058","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}