BRIDGEWATER – A simple glance at the wide variety of Yankees top prospect rankings online will yield no results for Ben Shields’ name.
That may soon change.
The 25-year-old left-handed starting pitcher was dominant in his Double-A debut for the Somerset Patriots in front of a sellout crowd of 7,106 fans at TD Bank Ballpark on Wednesday night, spinning five and a third scoreless innings in a dramatic 5-4 win over the Reading Fightin’ Phils in the last game of an abbreviated homestand.
Not bad for a guy who is less than 12 months removed from signing with the Yankees as a largely unheralded undrafted free agent out of George Mason University.
“I felt pretty good from the start,” Shields said. “There were a lot of fans, so you can settle in and do your thing. Coming up from (High-A) Hudson Valley, I had a great experience there. I put in a lot of hard work … with a lot of fans here, it’s easy to get up. You’re going to have a lot of energy and you’re going to take care of it and thank the fans for supporting us.”
Shields allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out five Fightin’ Phils batters on Wednesday, using a fastball that sat in the low 90s with a mix of sliders and curveballs to keep the opposition off-balance throughout the night. He’d flown largely under the radar since signing with the Yankees last July after a relatively non-descript collegiate career at both UMass and George Mason, and it stayed that way when he opened up the year in Hudson Valley as a reliever.
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But the Boston native got a crack at the starting rotation with the Renegades in mid-May and had excelled ever since, winning South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Month honors for a June in which he went 2-1 with a 2.03 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 26 ⅔ innings of work, earning a promotion to Somerset for his debut start.
With what a whirlwind the last year or so has been, you’ll have to excuse him if he hasn’t had much time to reflect on the ride.
“Just kind of taking it day-by-day and outing-by-outing and trying to be the best version of myself each time,” Shields said. “Make the adjustments I need to and move forward. But wash away (the Patriots debut) and move forward. Different team, so come up with a different plan with whoever’s back there and just try to execute it.”