Born: 5/03/2002 in Pasadena, CA
Draft: 2025, New York Yankees, Round: 11, Overall Pick: 344
College: Indiana
6'4", 215
Acquired in August of 2026 for Luis Garcia Jr.
https://www.milb.com/player/ben-grable-695066mlb pipeline:
Scouting grades: Fastball: 70 | Slider: 55 | Control: 55 | Overall: 40
Grabel twice had his college career interrupted by elbow issues, missing 2022 at Northwestern and 2024 at Indiana following Tommy John surgery. He worked his way into the Hoosiers' rotation as a fifth-year senior in 2025, when the Yankees drafted him in the 11th round. He has enjoyed a spectacular pro debut this year, earning a promotion from High-A to Double-A three weeks into the season and later a spot in the Futures Game. In August, he joined the Nationals as part of the Deadline swap for Luis García Jr.
No big league pitcher this season can match Grable's combination of velocity (sitting at 96 mph, peaking at 99) and induced vertical break (an average of 20-21 inches) on his fastball. Hitters know his heater is coming because he throws it 75 percent of the time, but they still can't stop chasing it and rarely catch up to it. He backs up his fastball with a mid-80s slider that features enough horizontal action to make it effective against both lefties and righties.
Grabel adds to his deception with a delivery that combines a high release height with good extension and unusual flexion in his arm action. It doesn't prevent him from filling the strike zone with either of his options. He was on the fast track to New York before the trade, and he gives Washington a high-octane bullpen arm on which to dream.
Profile story from July 12, 2026
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/yankees-prospect-ben-grable-no-025436770.htmlGrable said he is averaging 96.1 mph with his four-seamer and about 20.5 to 21 inches of induced vertical break — essentially the movement generated from how the ball spins. The more vertical break, the more the ball seems to rise (and the more hitters tend to swing under the pitch).
There are three qualified major leaguers (Alex Vesia, Tobias Myers and Dylan Lee) whose four-seamers average 20 inches of vertical break. None has a fastball that buzzes at even 94 mph.
There are plenty of pitchers whose fastball are as fast as Grable's, but none fight gravity like his four-seamer. The closest comparison might be the Padres' Jeremiah Estrada, whose heater has averaged 95.8 mph with 19.8 inches of vertical break this year. In the past three years in San Diego, Estrada has often been untouchable with a 3.26 ERA and 225 strikeouts in 154 ²/₃ innings.
That is as close to company as exists for Grable, whose fastball's combination of velocity and spin makes it like no one else's.
His 2.61 ERA is good. His peripheral numbers are better. Among the 1,602 affiliated minor leaguers who have thrown at least 30 innings (Grable has thrown 31 innings in 28 relief appearances), Grable ranks fourth in WHIP (0.77), 16th in strikeout percentage (40.2 percent) and eighth in opponents' batting average (.127) while walking 2.90 per nine innings.
A Southern California native who pitched two years at Northwestern and one at Indiana, Grable underwent Tommy John surgery in 2024. He returned to start and relieve for the Hoosiers, posting a 4.31 ERA in his final collegiate season before becoming one of 10 pitchers the Yankees drafted last year (and the first to shoot through the system).
He is a different pitcher than he was at college, where he said his fastball averaged 92 mph at Indiana and where he threw a different slider.
He said he "cleaned up my mechanics," now pitches exclusively from the stretch, worked on a fastball the Yankees believed "can be a whole lot better" and watched his velocity spike.
