Yankees prospect Kyle West’s road to pinstripes runs through the Arizona Fall League

The Yankees’ Arizona Fall League group includes Kyle West, a left-handed-hitting first baseman whose path to New York pinstripes began in a small West Virginia town and continued through a climb in pro ball. The point of the Fall League, in his view, is simple, get more at-bats and keep learning how to turn his strength into more consistent results.

West is West Virginia through and through. He starred at Hedgesville High School and then played college baseball at the University of Charleston before transferring to the University of West Virginia for two seasons, ending with a senior-year draft pick when New York selected him in the 13th round of the 2025 MLB Draft.

In his first full pro season, West split time in the Yankees system that included a stint with High-A Hudson Valley. He finished with 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases, a “record-setting” mark for Renegades franchise history, but the same year also came with a 29.8% strikeout rate and a.226 batting average, paired with a.694 OPS and 81 wRC+.

After 124 regular-season games, West turned to the Arizona Fall League to keep working through the rough spots. He said he was able to identify both down parts and bright spots from the season, and he described the adjustment process as using negative stretches as fuel rather than getting stuck in them.

Early in the Fall League, West has been focused on his lift and contact quality. Entering Thursday, he put six balls in play at 108 mph or more, tied for the most in the Fall League with Cincinnati’s Yerlin Confidan, but none cleared the fence, a reminder that raw impact does not always translate to home runs without better consistency in the batted-ball shape.

The organization also looks at how pitchers attack him, and the Yankees believe there is information worth mining. West saw the third-most pitches of any Yankees minor leaguer in 2026, and he has been working as a “visual learner,” studying how opposing pitching changed over time while he tries to make his swing more dependable.

In the Fall League, West will also be surrounded by top prospects from across the league, including Yankees prospect Dax Kilby, whom he is rooming with in Arizona. For West, the goal is to keep growing into his strengths, particularly maximizing hard contact by getting more balls in the air while working toward a higher level of day-to-day repeatability heading toward 2027.