One of the Yankees’ top pitching prospects will miss the 2025 season following a successful UCL repair procedure.
Spring training has just started, and the Yankees are already dealing with a major setback as one of their top prospects faces a season-ending injury. Chase Hampton, the team’s second-ranked pitching prospect according to MLB Pipeline, underwent successful Tommy John surgery on Friday morning. He is expected to miss the entire 2025 season and part of 2026.
This news wasn’t unexpected for the Yankees, as previous reports indicated that Hampton would be shut down due to a flexor tendon strain, and further tests revealed damage to his ulnar collateral ligament that required surgical repair. This isn’t the first time Hampton has faced this type of injury. He experienced a similar flexor strain at the start of last season and opted to rehab rather than have surgery.
As a result, he missed the first three months of the 2024 season but managed to return to pitch 18.2 innings across the complex, Single-A, and Double-A levels. However, this latest injury was too severe to avoid surgery, leaving Hampton with two consecutive seasons lost to injury.
The Yankees have highly valued Hampton since drafting him in the sixth round of the 2022 MLB Draft, even choosing to keep him over higher-ranked Drew Thorpe in the trade for Juan Soto. In 2023, he posted a 3.63 ERA with a 33.1% strikeout rate in 106.2 innings across High-A and Double-A. Hampton now faces a typical year-long recovery, with hopes to return in the first half of 2026.
In another blow to the team’s pitching depth, Thatcher Hurd, the Yankees’ third-round pick in 2024, also had Tommy John surgery and will miss this season. With Hampton and Hurd sidelined, and the departures of pitchers like Thorpe, Michael King, Nestor Cortes, and Cody Poteet, as well as the potential loss of Marcus Stroman, the Yankees are facing a significant gap in both upper minor league and major league starting pitching.
