Damon Oppenheimer reveals Yankees’ draft strategy after pitcher-heavy approach

After the Yankees picked college pitchers with their first seven selections of the MLB amateur draft, it seemed fair to wonder whether the organization was trying to make up for some of the pitching depth it lost in recent trades in an attempt to improve the major league roster.

Damon Oppenheimer, the team’s longtime vice president and director of amateur scouting insisted that wasn’t the case.

But he did acknowledge Thursday during a Zoom call that the Yankees do look at pitchers as easier to get to the big-league level.

“I think the strategy for us is to try to take the best available,’’ Oppenheimer said. “It could have been a couple of position players. We’ve done a lot of research on what gets to the big leagues and pitching, you can develop and get it there. You need a lot of pitching to hold up over time. Nowadays, it’s so hard to hit, why not attack something that’s hard?”

And he added it was more a product of how the draft fell that the Yankees ended up taking 19 college players out of the 20 drafted.

“It could have been four high school guys in our top 10,’’ Oppenheimer said. “It just flips this way for you.”

Oppenheimer also said he was “confident” the Yankees would sign a “majority” of their players. They have until Aug. 1 to do so, including top pick, RHP Ben Hess, who was selected 26th overall out of Alabama.

There has been thought the Yankees could sign Hess to an underslot value because of his injury history, but Oppenheimer said Hess was “healthy” at the scouting combine.

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As if the Yankees didn’t already have enough issues heading into the second half, coming off their worst few weeks of the season, they figure to be without Jose Trevino for “a while,” manager Aaron Boone said before the break.

Trevino was put on the 10-day injured list when he suffered a Grade 2 quad strain against the Orioles and that type of injury can cause an absence of up to four to six weeks.

Carlos Narvaez was called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but didn’t appear in any games last weekend, as Austin Wells caught the final two games of the series.

Wells had previously earned more playing time over Trevino, but if Trevino is out for an extended period of time, the Yankees could be forced to add another target before the July 30 trade deadline.

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JD Davis is eligible to come off the IL after the break, but the Yankees are set to face four straight right-handers when they open the second half against the Rays.

Davis’ replacement, prospect Jorbit Vivas, didn’t play after being recalled from SWB.

The lefty-swinging prospect, much like Narvaez, was clearly in Baltimore only in case of emergency.

He was optioned back to Triple-A.