Move from backstop to mound restarts clock for hard-throwing Yanks prospect

In the Arizona Fall League, the New York Yankees have placed right-hander Antonio Gomez in the kind of developmental pressure cooker that prioritizes innings and rapid feedback. The goal is straightforward: convert an elite throwing arm into usable pitching over time, even though Gomez’s path was delayed by his late movement off catching.

Gomez was a catcher early in his pro career, arriving as part of the Yankees’ 2018 international class and signing for $600,000 out of Venezuela. MLB’s organizational plan leaned on a notable physical trait first, with Gomez credited as having the best arm strength of any catcher in that class and recording pop times as low as 1.8 seconds.

As a hitter, though, his run production never developed in the same way as the receiving skills did. Across the first seven years of his pro career, he batted.240 with a 28% strikeout rate. The release also notes that his transition to Double-A in 2025 came with a steep drop in results, including a.140 batting average, which helped push the idea that a career change might be necessary.

The pitching pivot began when Yankees staff approached Gomez during the middle of 2025 and asked if he wanted to try pitching. The transition then accelerated after Double-A catcher Rafael Flores Jr., now with the Pirates, challenged Gomez to get on the mound, where the first pitch reportedly clocked around 98 mph. Gomez then moved into the training phase at the organization’s Tampa base.

The early results in Florida showed velo returning quickly, but the full workload and mechanics lagged. The Yankees sent him to their Single-A affiliate in the Florida State League after a month of training, where the report describes him surrendering six runs in 2 2/3 innings across four appearances before right elbow issues shut down the effort and required internal brace surgery.

After returning in August and making six appearances with the Tarpons, Gomez was again reaching triple digits, topping out at 101 mph with his four-seam fastball, pairing it with a cutter reaching 94 and an upper-90s sinker and a mid-80s slider. Still, his season totaled only 8 1/3 innings of Minor League pitching experience, which is why the Yankees turned to the Arizona Fall League for additional work.

In the AFL, Gomez’s assignment has been less about proving he can throw hard and more about learning control, command, and pitch usage. The report describes him nearly matching his prior Minor League inning total with eight innings for the Salt River Rafters, allowing seven runs on nine hits and eight walks while striking out seven, with his arm action still resembling a catcher’s.

While he sees the transition as fun and says the adjustment is faster than he expected, the release frames the next step as a development patience test. It characterizes Gomez as having the raw ingredients for a bullpen weapon, but emphasizes that control and command are the bottleneck, not the ability to reach high velocity.