Flo-rishing: Estevan Florial making a profound impact

Does the pressure of performing for the Yankees fanbase affect former number one New York prospect Estevan Florial?

“If I said no, I’d be lying,” Florial confided on a July afternoon before a game against the Buffalo Bisons.

In 2019, Baseball America rated Florial the number one prospect in the Yankees system. Three years later in 2022, the now RailRider was placed at number 26. Still just 24 years old, Florial has gotten a taste of Major League Baseball but has yet to be given a true opportunity in the big leagues with just 34 Yankees at-bats at the time of writing. How is he handling it now seven years into his professional baseball career?

“After (2017), I learned that it doesn’t matter if you’re on the list or not, you have to go out and perform. Do the best you can. It’s just a list. That doesn’t define you.”

The 2017 season was a big year for Florial. While mostly with the Charleston River Dogs of the Low-A South Atlantic League, he was named Most Outstanding Major League Prospect, a mid and post-season All-Star and was selected to the Futures Game to play alongside Rhys Hoskins, Eloy Jiménez and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Florial’s meteoric rise in the system rankings was tainted by broken bones in his right wrist and hand, limiting his game action over the years.

But in 2022, Florial has been nothing shy of spectacular. He has been the RailRider’s leadoff man all season while being easily the most consistent threat in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre lineup. He knows that to become a fixture of the Yankees roster, progression doesn’t stop just because he’s made it to the Triple-A level.

Florial has been called up to the big leagues three times this season to serve as the Yankees “27th Man” for a doubleheader.

“Every time you have the opportunity to go up there, it’s really amazing. It’s a dream come true,” he said. Even still, he feels the pressure to perform, knowing the stint is likely to be short. “I’m not going to say it’s easy. Every time you go up there, you hope to stay there.”

“I just try to be able to help the team because we have so much talent up there. From one to nine, all of them can say they are superstar players… You want to be at that level to help them,” he explained. “Every time I’m up there, I try to match the talent level.”

Matching that talent level is no easy task. The Yankees have been the most well-rounded and successful team in Major League Baseball so far this season. Florial knows that at this stage in his career, there are still many things to improve on the diamond. “I know there’s a lot of areas that have to grow.”

While hitting is always an area of improvement for any player that is consistently worked on throughout their career, Florial’s base-stealing prowess has been on full display in 2022.

“The only way you’re gonna steal bases is going,” he explained in simple terms. Florial has learned that being aggressive when you have the speed to back it up can be a deadly threat. “Don’t be scared to get thrown out.”

In his first 60 RailRiders games of the season, Florial had stolen 26 bases, already setting a personal season-best. At the time, he was on pace to steal 50 bases in 2022, which would break a single-season franchise record of 44 set by Tommy Barrett in the inaugural Scranton/Wilkes-Barre season of 1989. “I didn’t know that,” Florial laughed when told about his potential record-setting pace.

Not only has his speed been harnessed, but Florial’s power came to life during a strong month of June. He slugged .534 in 22 RailRiders games, the second-highest of any month in his career where he played at least 20 games. He slugged .635 in a monster June of 2017. It came to a head as the calendar flipped to July when Florial swatted a pair of solo home runs against the Bisons on July 2. The second homer left the bat at 111 MPH and cleared the Budwisser Railhouse in right field, ricocheting off the rocks that surround the concourse in right.

His stellar play, especially in the middle part of the 2022 Triple-A season, has caught the attention of the online Yankees fanbase. You’d be hard-pressed to click on any tweet or post centered around Florial that isn’t flooded by pleas for his promotion to the Major League roster. On that aforementioned second homer on July 2, the tweet including a video of the homer garnered 38,000 views in just two days.

It’s not all sunshine for Florial however, who again has yet to see regular Major League time. Entering the season, that same Baseball America ranking and report read: “Florial has plenty of strong tools. Internal evaluators rate his defense and throwing arm as the best among the system’s outfielders, and his athleticism also grades out as the organization’s best. He still is capable of hitting the ball plenty hard—his exit velocities in the minors maxed out at 111 MPH—but he still swings and misses far too often, particularly at pitches in the strike zone, and he struck out at a nearly 31% clip in Triple-A.”

Those strikeouts are something he and the staff have been working to cut down on. At the time of writing, those strikeout rates were still consistent with the rest of his career. It’s around eight percent higher than the Yankees roster in 2022.

“I think (I’ve grown) a lot,” he said when comparing himself to his 2021 counterpart when that report was written. He’s learned how other players play against him. He’s likened Triple-A teams to how Major League teams operate: continuously adapting.

Florial has also learned since that monster 2017 season in A-Ball to not pay too much mind to lists and rankings. “Be the best version of yourself,” he said when asked how he feels about not being high up on those rankings any longer.

He’s playing for something larger. A proud Dominican-born ballplayer who has admired former Yankee and fellow countryman Robinson Canó from afar, he’s learned to not stress over the ups and downs of a marathon baseball season, let alone career.

“He doesn’t take pressure. He’s a guy who respects the game. I like how he plays,” he said of Canó. The calm attitude is what Florial has observed and practiced, even as the game has taken him up and down like a rollercoaster.

For the time being, the Yankees are destined for a post-season run in 2022. Whether Florial is a part of that run is to be determined. He’s trying not to focus on that. He’s trying to ignore what the world around him has to say and focus on getting better on the field. Players at all levels love to say, “Control what I can control.” Such is particularly true for Florial.

Until it makes sense to be different, Estevan Florial is a RailRider. He continues to work on improving his game every day at the Triple-A level. That way, the next time the Yankees call him, he won’t have to come back down.