Yankees select LHP TJ Sikkema with 38th pick in 2019 MLB Draft

After selecting Anthony Volpe with the 30th pick in the MLB 2019 draft Monday night, the New York Yankees decided to start with a left-handed pitcher in the Competition Equilibrium Competition. Their choice with choice 38 was TJ Sikkema from the University of Missouri. It was the Yankees' choice in trade between Sonny Gray and the Cincinnati Reds.

Sikkema is ranked 57th in MLB Pipeline's Top 200 Prospects and Baseball America (subscription required) talks about the variety of terrain and arm positions that the six-footer has in its arsenal:

"He can reach speeds of up to 93-95 mph with his fastball when he lifts his arm slot in the short relays, but he's usually sitting at 89-92 mph as a starter with a lot of run from the side of the arm from the lower slot. He mixes four pitches, none of which is an asset, but all four are average or better. He throws a mud above the average of his arm's slit that has power and depth, as well as a more traditional curve and more curved. He willingly mixes with an average evolution as well. All his offerings play because Sikkema occupies the area with strikes on both sides of the plate. "

Here is a video of Sikkema that started last season against the University of Florida with the kind permission of 2080 Baseball:

The value of Sikkema for the Yankees is that it could be used in various roles. He can either start as he did last season for the Tigers or get out of the paddock. As a starter, he was 7-4 with a points average of 1.32 and scored 101 sackings for 31 goals in 88.2 innings (17 games, 13 starts). He had at least 10 strikeouts on four different occasions (all in the SEC).

In 2017, Volpe was mainly used for the first year. He had four saves and 81 strikeouts in 81 innings in 18 innings.

Although you did not see teams writing normally to meet the needs, the Yankees could have used another left handed arm in the organization. Sikkema fits the bill in this regard and it also allows the Yankees to save a little money that they will likely use to give Volpe to prevent him from traveling to Vanderbilt.

If you watch Sikkema on a tape, you can see the competitiveness that he has on the mound and it has value regardless of the role he's holding with the Yankees. He could either climb into the system as a reliever or grow slowly as a starting pitcher. It will be interesting to see what track the Yankees of New York decide to put in his career.

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