From A Top Yankees Pitching Prospect To Working Sales: The Forgotten Career Of Chance Adams

Wearing the pinstripes that is the New York Yankees uniform is something that is taken with pride and honor when a player buttons up the historic jersey. When it comes to notable Yankees you think of Jeter, Ruth, Mantle and A-Rod as a few of many.

There have been many players that were expected to become big when they arrived in New York, as a product of the Yank’s farm system. Some did become what they were expected to be like Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres. Then you have a category of players who were expected to be big and flopped, but were still favored by many like Greg Bird for instance.

But what about a player who was expected to be the next great Cy Young candidate, loved and prized by the organization and fans to now be completely wiped from everyone’s mind?

There are a few names you can think of, but will they ever come close to Chance Adams?

Chance Adams didn’t even pitch an inning in the majors yet and the Yankees had him above the rest. A trade to the Pirates in 2017 for Gerrit Cole broke up and never occurred because New York was hesitant to trade Adams. All came to a close as Adams got DFA’d in 2019 over the offseason to make room for Gerrit Cole the same day Cole signed his massive 9-year contract with the organization.

Adams was a 2015 selection by the Yankees in the fifth round. 2016 would see him win the Kevin Lawn Award as the organization's best pitcher with a 0.903 WHIP in 127 innings. Post-2017 season, Adams underwent surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow. Despite the surgery, prior to the 2018 season, Adams was the Yankees No. 3 prospect and the 75th best overall minor league prospect, according to MLB.com. By time of Adam's promotion to the majors, he would be rated as New York's No. 2 prospect.

Adam's velocity was down post-surgery. Pre-surgery, Adam's fast fall sat in the mid-to-high 90s, when then dropped to the low 90s after the surgery. The decline in velocity led him to a 4.50+ ERA season in Triple-AAA for 2018, which saw a fall in his strikeout rates and a rise in walk and home run rates.

Admist his minor league struggles, Chance finally got his chance in 2018 with 3 appearances including 1 start. A drop in velocity and lack of control saw the righty give up 3 homers and 4 walks in just 7.2 innings, while posting a 7.04 ERA. Despite the poor stats he once again got a shot in 2019. In a larger sample size of 13 games and 25.1 innings, which were all in relief, Adams continued to struggle. This time ‘round he posted a 8.53 ERA, -0.7 pWAR and a 1.974 WHIP. 

The once-top flamethrower did pick up his first (and only) career win and save during 2019, but a lack of overall production led him to the eventual DFA’ing choice by the Yanks’ and trade several days later to Kansas City.

Despite a new environment, Adams still got knocked around in his limited time with Kansas City and has been out of the league entirely since November of 2023. Adams now works in refrigeration service sales, according to his LinkedIn.

In a span of a decade, Chance Adams went from being one of the top off-limits pitching prospects in baseball and an expected superstar to being out of the league entirely and now working an everyday job.

Editor’s note: Overall, Adams was (and still is) one of my favorite Yankees. I still to this day in 2025 collect his autographed balls and baseballs and hunt for them on Ebay. It really is a shame that he never worked out in the majors, but nonetheless no-one could ever take away the fact that he was a top prospect. I do feel though that it is crazy how fast life and a career could change. In 2023, Adams was a Triple-AAA pitcher for the Rockies organization and not even a full 2-years later he’s working sales.

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