Yankees call up top prospect fans have been begging for as rosters expand

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The Yankees called up one of their top prospects that fans have been clamoring to see in the big leagues: Oswald Peraza.

New York announced the roster move ahead of their three-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays, as Peraza will travel from the Scranton-Wilkes Barre RailRiders to join the team in Florida.

Peraza is currently ranked the No. 3 overall prospect in the Yankees’ farm system by MLB Pipeline. Only Anthony Volpe, the team’s former first-round draft choice and another shortstop, is ahead of him.

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New York Yankees' prospect Oswald Peraza plays shortstop in a spring training game against the Detroit Tigers at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, on March 5, 2021. (J. Conrad Williams Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images)

The right-handed hitter has been flexing his muscle this season in Triple-A, hitting his 19th homer just hours ago on Thursday against the Syracuse Mets. He came into the day slashing .258/.329/.440 with 18 homers and 49 RBI.

The reason fans have been wishing the Yankees called him up sooner is due to their current shortstop situation in the Bronx as the team continues to struggle in the second half.

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Isiah Kiner-Falefa was brought in this offseason as a stopgap option, creating a short-term fix as the Yankees trust in Peraza or Volpe to emerge as an MLB-quality shortstop. But Kiner-Falefa has been a liability at times at shortstop, as he currently ranks in the 29th percentile of Outs Above Average, which is a ranged-based Statcast measurement used to determine how many outs a player has saved over his peers.

New York Yankees shortstop Oswald Peraza throws the ball over to first base during the spring training game against the Toronto Blue Jays at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Florida, on March 22, 2022. (Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

While Kiner-Falefa has made some spectacular plays at shortstop, he doesn't make the routine ones at times, owning 12 errors on the season (six throwing, six fielding). His latest proved costly on Wednesday night when a routine grounder off the bat of Mike Trout was booted. The next at-bat, Shohei Ohtani blasted a three-run homer, which could be the decisive hit in the Yankees' 3-2 loss.

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Kiner-Falefa’s bat also hasn’t been potent this season. While the Yankees knew he is more of a contact-first hitter, he isn’t getting on base much with a .261 average and .310 on-base percentage (league average OBP is .312). With just one home run and 18 doubles, Kiner-Falefa is slugging just .315 with a .625 OPS.

Marwin Gonzalez has relieved Kiner-Falefa at shortstop at times this season, as he’s the Swiss Army knife bench player for New York. But fans have not liked his .200/.271/.323 slash line in his 65 games played in pinstripes.

Oswald Peraza of the New York Yankees (Mike Carlson/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Peraza, then, has a golden opportunity to prove himself in front of a team and fan base that is expecting him to make an immediate impact. If all goes well, Peraza could be in serious consideration for the postseason, which the Yankees seemed primed to be participating in.

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The Yankees currently lead the AL East by six games heading into a crucial three-game series with the team chasing them, the Tampa Bay Rays.