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Tyler Austin is currently one of the best hitters in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s lineup.
Sound familiar? It should. But it would also be easy to forget that the statement is something that was being said last year as well.
Entering the 2015 season as one of the Yankees top prospects, Austin got off to a torrid start to his Triple-A career with the RailRiders.
Through two months after the start of the 2015 season the then-outfielder seemed to drive in runs every time he was at the plate. He was leading the RailRiders in runs batted in, and even though his batting average wasn’t the best, he was starting to heat up in the third month.
Just then, a tailspin began as he hit the disabled list. While on the DL, New York’s No. 1 overall prospect Aaron Judge got the promotion to Triple-A. It didn’t help that once he was healthy, it only lasted a few days before landing back on the injured list.
There didn’t seem to be any more room for Austin as his playing time decreased. Then a demotion to Double-A Trenton occurred. And on Sept. 1, he was designated for assignment by the Yankees to make room on the 40-man roster.
“It’s tough. You never want to go backwards in this game, but it was a great learning experience for me,” Austin said. “This game humbled me very fast and I found out the hard way. I’m gonna try to not let anything like that happen again and continue to work hard and go from there.”
After working his way back up the ladder, and with the help of a moving to a new position at first base, the 24-year-old is hitting in the middle of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s lineup once again. In a little more than a week’s worth of games, Austin is batting .407 with a pair of longballs and nine RBI, while boasting a .448 on base percentage and slugging .852.
He got off to such a torrid start in his first game back at Triple-A in about 11 months, that he homered in his first plate appearance with SWB this year.
“I’m just trying to stay a consistent approach and try to keep the same mindset every time I go to the plate,” Austin said. “And that’s worked out pretty well so far for me this year.”
Moving to a new position is never a smooth transition, but after minimal mistakes in the move, Austin has settled in. He was approached by the Yankees to move to first base in spring training and jumped at the opportunity to get more playing time. He’s played nearly 400 innings this season at first being involved in more than 300 plays and making just four errors for a fielding percentage of .988.
“I’m feeling good, but I got a long way to go. I’ve come a long way since the beginning of the year,” he said about the move to first base. “You just gotta work at it, just like everything else and it’s coming along good so I don’t think it’s that much of an adjustment.”
When he was going through hard times in 2015 and wound up in Trenton, his manager there was Al Pedrique, who’s currently the RailRiders manager.
Pedrique knows what Austin has been through. But he also see tons of potential in the first baseman.
“The kid has tools. All throughout his career, he has been getting hurt a lot and he keeps fighting and has proved to the organization that he can still play this game and be successful and hopefully he can get a shot to make it to the Big Leagues,” Pedrique said. “I’m very happy that when it was brought up to him to play first base in spring training, he took it as a true professional.”
With New York’s first base position in such limbo due to injuries to Greg Bird, Mark Teixeira, Dustin Ackley and Chris Parmelee, Austin may be showing off his professionalism in the Major Leagues soon.