Enns opened eyes in the scout section on April 22 when he fanned 9 of his first 11 batters, and took a dominating no-hitter into the 6th inning against the Akron RubberDucks. A 19th-round pick from Western Michigan in 2012, Enns is coming off of mid-season Tommy John surgery in 2014 while at High A Tampa, where up to that point in his career he had been used as a both a reliever and starter. He was assigned to Trenton April 4th, and was making just his third start at the Double-A level — and he’s showing that the Yankees are making the right choice in developing him as a starter post-surgery. His deceptive delivery, with a three-quarters arm slot, was the most impressive part of this viewing. He hides the ball exceptionally well throughout the windup, and his combination of an up-tempo and balanced delivery, quick arm action, and consistent release points across his four-pitch mix gave Akron hitters pitch identification fits all night.

He showed above-average command of his fastball, sitting 89-92 mph (T93) and working it two ways: boring in on LHH with tailing life, and working it in to RHH with late cutting action down-and-in – with the latter settling in at the lower end of the velo band. The deception added a few ticks of sneaky velocity to the offering, making it play up a potential plus pitch overall (six of his first seven strikeouts were of the swinging variety, all with the FB).

His slider (82-to-85 mph) showed tilt and late bite down-and-in to RHH, and was a solid strike-to-ball offering nibbling at the back foot. His changeup showed 10-to-12 mph of velo separation while maintaining his arm speed, and its late-diving action induced two more swinging Ks later in the game. He also flashed a few loopy, 1-to-7 curveballs in the low-70’s that kept hitters off-balance. Enns’ velocity dropped a couple of ticks as he tired in the 6th inning, and a fastball left up in the zone led to a sharply hit two-out double to break up the no-no. To date, he’s thrown 23.2 scoreless innings over four starts, giving up nine hits while striking out 25. We’ll be following Enns more closely from here, focusing in on how he commands his secondaries in future starts. – Mark Shreve