The New York Yankees protected seven prospects from this year’s Rule 5 Draft on Wednesday, and two RailRiders are among them.

Top pitching prospect Deivi Garcia and hard-throwing righty Nick Nelson were added to the 40-man roster Wednesday, a step closer to making their big league debuts. OF Estevan Florial, RHP Luis Gil, RHP Luis Medina, RHP Brooks Kriske and RHP Miguel Yajure were also added to the 40-man roster. To make room, LHP Nestor Cortes Jr. and 1B Greg Bird were designated for assignment and OF Jacoby Ellsbury was released with one year left on his mega-deal.

Garcia, who won’t turn 21 until more than a month into the upcoming season, rocketed through the minors in 2019, starting the year in High-A Tampa and ending it with SWB. In a career high 111.1 innings — he had 182.1 innings over the first three seasons of his career — Garcia had a 4.28 ERA with 165 strikeouts (13.3 K/9) and 54 walks (4.4 BB/9). With the RailRiders, he was 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA in 40 innings, ending the year in the bullpen to limit his workload.

The 5-foot-9 righty boasts an impressive arsenal of pitches. When he was at Triple-A, his fastball sat comfortably in the 91-94 mph range, but he has the ability reach back and run it into the mid-90s whenever he wants to. It’s got a lot of spin to it and hitters are typically late on it. Garcia’s big curveball was his calling card heading into 2019, but that pitch might be taking a back seat to another. Garcia learned how to throw a slider, and with the RailRiders, it often looked like his best secondary pitch.

Nelson, who will turn 24 in a couple weeks, had his best season as a pro in 2019, going 8-3 with a 2.81 ERA across three levels of the minors. In 89.2 innings — he missed May with an injury — Nelson struck out 114 (11.4 K/9) and walked 43 (4.3 BB/9). With the RailRiders, he went 1-1 with a 4.71 ERA, striking out 24 and walking just seven in 21 innings.

Nelson feels likes a throwback power pitcher, with a dominant fastball that lives in the mid-to-high 90s that he uses to gets swings and misses up in the zone.

“I know that command is always something that wasn’t quite there, and he’s totally gotten it this year,” fellow Yankees pitching prospect Mike King said of Nelson toward the end of the RailRiders season. “So, his stuff obviously plays and now that he’s overcome that little hump, he’s dominant.”

Florial, 22 on Friday, had been a fixture atop Yankees top prospects list the last few seasons, but injuries limited him to just 84 games in 2018, then 74 games in 2019. As a result, he’s fallen out of Baseball America’s top 10 Yankees prospects and slipped to seventh in Baseball Prospectus’ rankings. Florial batted .237 with Tampa this year, with a .297 on-base percentage and a .383 slugging percentage — his worst offensive numbers since 2016, his second pro season. He did, however, end the season on a high note, posting a .796 OPS over 26 games in August.

Kriske, 25, should be in line to start the season with the RailRiders after spending most of 2019 with Trenton. In 48.2 innings with the Thunder, he had a 2.59 ERA with 64 strikeouts (11.8 K/9) and 23 walks (4.3 BB/9) while holding opponents to a .171 average.

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