Top Could-Have-Beens of NYY History: Manny Bañuelos

In hindsight, its probably not a good idea to hype up a specific group of prospects with a collective nickname, especially when theyre pitching prospects.

In the late 2000s/early 2010s, three Yankee pitching farmhands whose last names all started with B started to make waves: Dellin Betances, Andrew Brackman, and Manuel Banuelos.

Of the so-called Killer Bs, Betances made the biggest impact.

While he wasnt able to last as a starter as initially hoped, he was converted into a reliever, and a terrific one at that.

Betances was absolutely dominant for several years, posting a 2.36 ERA and an eye-popping 14.6 K/9 in his Yankee career, making four All-Star teams as a setup man.

He ranked 84th on our Top 100 Yankees series from last offseason.

On the other end of the spectrum, there was Brackman.

While he had some hype for a period thanks to his college career and his status as a first-round draft pick, Brackman never had any sort of sustained success in the minors, with injuries hindering him quite a bit after post-draft Tommy John surgery.

He did briefly appear in the big leagues with the Yankees , but by that time any hype around him was long gone.

Somewhere in the middle of those two is Banuelos.

Arguably the most hyped, Banuelos has had a bit of a major-league career, but he fell well short of the expectations of those who dreamed on him during his minor-league ascent.

Years in Yankees Organization: 2008-14, 2022 How They Left: Traded to Braves in 2014, purchased by Pirates in 2022 Career MLB Yankee Statistics: 4 games, 8.1 innings, 1 save, 2.16 ERA, 190 ERA+, 2.27 FIP, 0.1 rWAR, 0.1 fWAR Career MLB Statistics: 3 seasons, 58 games, 118 innings, 5.64 ERA, 76 ERA+, 5.22 FIP, -0.8 rWAR, -0.2 fWAR Born in Mexico in 1991, Banuelos was signed by the Yankees in 2008.

He was hardly the most touted international prospect that year, as he was one of a group of Mexican League players the Yankees signed for $450,000 in total.

While he was a bit intriguing as a lefty, Banuelos was short in stature at 5-foot-10 and generally only topped out in the low-90s with his fastball.

However, after signing, Banuelos hit the ground running, with a 2.57 ERA and 1.071 WHIP in 42 innings down in Rookie ball for the Gulf Coast League as a 17-year old.

Over the next year, Banuelos continued to put up good numbers, but also added some more velocity to his fastball, starting to regularly sit in the mid-90s.

By the summer of 2009, he had emerged as a legitimate prospect, being named as a Yankee representative to that years Futures Game.

That continued through 2010, where Banuelos got all the way up to Double-A, despite still being just 19.

An appendectomy delayed the beginning of his season, but he ultimately recorded a 2.51 ERA and 1.222 WHIP in 15 starts across three levels, posting some very nice strikeout numbers by fanning 85 in 64.2 innings (11.8 K/9).

He also made seven appearances in the Arizona Fall League, though his age was a bit apparent in his so-so results.

By spring training 2011, Banuelos was really starting to make waves beyond the Yankees.

Ahead of that year, he started to crack Top 100 prospects in baseball lists, and also got an invite to big league camp at spring training.

There, he massively impressed scouts, coaches, and players alike.

Mariano Rivera called Banuelos the best pitching prospect hed ever seen, and he was honored with the James P.

Dawson Award for the best rookie/prospect in spring training.

While there are certainly some misses in that awards history, past winners include the likes of Willie Randolph, Don Mattingly, and Jorge Posada.

By the end of the 2011 season, Banuelos had cracked Triple-A, and returned to big league camp for 2012.

He continued to be seen as a top prospect across baseball, with MLB.com putting him all the way up at No.

13 on their list and Baseball America noting he has the upside to be New Yorks best homegrown pitcher since Andy Pettitte.

In game action though, Banuelos was limited to 24 innings, as he struggled with an ERA over four.

After the season, examinations revealed that he needed Tommy John surgery.

With the way he had looked in spring training the previous year, there were hopes that he could make it to the big leagues at some point in 2012.

Circumstances kept that from happening, and also meant that he would be out of action until 2014.

When Banuelos finally did get back on the mound in 2014, the bloom had come off the rose a bit.

As you might expect, a pitching prospect coming off Tommy John is seen far from a sure thing.

The Yankees were cautious with him, and the results in his 76.2 innings across three different levels were mixed.

The mantra of theres no such thing as a pitching prospect was ringing loud and clear around Banuelos by now, and on January 1, 2015, the Yankees did the thing which seemed unthinkable a few years prior.

Not only did the Yankees trade him, but they did so in a low-profile deal.

They sent him to the Braves in exchange for relievers David Carpenter and Chasen Shreve.

The return for the one time hopeful ace was far from impressive, and nothing impressive really came out of it.

Shreve had his moments, but Carpenter the bigger name in the deal really struggled and didnt even last the 2015 season in the Bronx.

Yet nothing Banuelos did really made the Yankees losers in the trade.

He was at least sharp in his MLB debut on July 2nd in Atlanta, striking out seven Nationals and walking none in 5.2 (cramp-shortened) innings of two-hit, shutout ball, even fanning soon-to-be-MVP Bryce Harper twice.

But Banuelos looked much less impressive in his remaining big-league outings that year, struggling and continuing to deal with injury issues.

With Banuelos still seemingly stuck in the mud, the Braves released him in 2016.

Over the next couple years, the pitcher became a journeyman.

He went through several minor-league systems with only the White Sox giving him a taste of the majors in 2019.

However, he posted a 6.93 ERA in 50.2 innings for them and was eventually released by Chicago too.

Then, he turned to overseas leagues, playing in Taiwan in 2020 and his native Mexico in 2021.

After the Mexico stint went decently enough, some old friends came calling.

Ahead of the 2022 season, the Yankees signed Banuelos to a minor-league deal.

Then, thanks to a good start in Triple-A and some injuries, Banuelos became the pitcher the team called up to fill in a big-league role in May.

On June 3rd, with the Yankees blowing out the Tigers after Gerrit Cole had flirted with a perfect game, they brought in Banuelos for a moment that warmed the hearts of many a Yankee blog reader from the early 2010s.

Wearing the No.

68 of his fellow former Killer B, Betances, Banuelos finished off the final two frames of an appearance over a decade in the making.

He went on to pitch in a couple more games for the team, posting a 2.16 ERA in 8.1 innings.

That was just good enough so that when the Yankees started to get pitchers back from injury, there was a team willing to claim him when he was put on waivers.

The Pirates snatched him up, and he threw another 30+ innings there, albeit with much lesser results.

Since then, the Pirates released him, and Banuelos has spent the last two years overseas again, playing 2023 in Japan and 2024 back in Taiwan.

Hes also been pitching recently in the Mexican Winter League, so perhaps there is still more to be written in the Manny Banuelos Story.

The second act of Banuelos career and his Yankee Stadium moment at least took some of the sting of his downfall as a prospect and eventual trade.

However, for those of us for whom Banuelos was one of our first loves as a prospect, its hard not to wish for something more.

Sources FanGraphs Baseball Reference BR Bullpen New York Daily News ESPN MLB.com NBC Sports Previously on Top Could-Have-Been Yankees Austin Jackson Full List (to date).

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