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Tyler Hardman of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders reacts during a Minor League Baseball game at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, United States, on May 23, 2026. (Photo by Dan Squicciarini/NurPhoto via Getty Images) | NurPhoto via Getty Images
Now 27 years old, Tyler Hardman spent parts of five years with the Somerset Patriots, the New York Yankees’ Double-A affiliate. He debuted there in his second pro season, during the final week of the 2022 campaign and helped them win the Eastern League championship. He ultimately played 313 games there, second-most in franchise history, and he ranks first in hits (254), home runs (67), and RBIs (195).
Throughout his tenure there, he saw many teammates—Austin Wells, Ben Rice, Jasson Domínguez, Spencer Jones, and George Lombard Jr., just to name a few—get promoted while he remained in the Garden State. Yet he persevered, and finally, on May 23rd, he got the call to Triple-A and joined the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
“It’s been a lot of fun so far,” Hardman said. “I’ve been able to reconnect with guys I met in spring, same thing with coaches. It’s been a really good change of environment. It’s been fun to learn from guys that have been up higher than Triple-A, been up to the top before.”
Hardman insists he felt no frustration in being at Double-A for so long.
“It’s always my job to force their hand,” he said. “If there was any doubt or something I could have done better, that’s what I wanted to do. I didn’t want there to be a question if I deserved to be somewhere. Everything was in my control to force their hand.”
Still, he certainly had the numbers to mehrit a promotion. The 27-year-old, right-handed slugger ranked among the Eastern League offensive leaders each year and, at the time of his call-up this season, was first in the league in RBIs (40); second in home runs (13) and total bases (92); tied for third in extra-base hits (21); fourth in slugging (.613); fifth in OPS (.984); tied for seventh in hits (45); and 10th in batting average (.300).
“That’s part of who I am. I always just want to control what I can,” Hardman said. “Even if you’re hitting .300, you’re still messing up a lot. So I feel like there’s always something you can do better. I was surrounded by a lot of good groups down there, had a lot of good teammates pass through. It was always a good time.”
One might think it’s not a big deal to hold franchise records at Double-A. But Hardman feels otherwise.
“I think it’s cool,” he said. “Granted, everyone knows you’re not there to set that record. It’s a good reminder that I was at least able to help produce for the team or help the team out. It’s not your first goal there, but once you get something like that, you have that reminder you might have been here a while, but you’re still doing your part to help the team.”
Now, he wants to do his part to help the RailRiders. So far in 37 games, he is batting .238/.340/.415 (31-for-130) with eight doubles, five home runs, six stolen bases, 15 runs, 17 RBI, and a 98 wRC+.
For Hardman, he said he always just tries his best to put the ball in play.
“You can’t be productive if you can’t put the ball in play. That’s been my mantra this year,” Hardman said. “Just do whatever I can to keep it super simple. I’m a big believer that baseball is very much a mental game. The more I can keep it simple and push the ball forward has helped me a lot offensively. And defensively, just keep the confidence up wherever they need me to play.”
Primarily a third baseman, Hardman played first base for much of the 2024 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in October 2023. He moved back to third in 2025, but still occasionally plays first.
During the RailRiders’ recent road trip in Indianapolis, Hardman had a two-homer game June 25th at Victory Field. The second of those blasts was the 1o0th of his professional career. He said the key to hitting home runs is to try not to hit them.
“There’s a lot of hitters that I’ve played with that are like that. They have that power that if you just put the ball in play, it’s going to be hit fairly hard, if not harder than the average,” Hardman said. “So if I continue to put the ball forward, the chances of those homers go up substantially. A He lot of times when you try too hard, the baseball doesn’t go in your favor. So the more I can keep it simple and just focus on move the ball forward, the longer ones are going to take care of themselves.”
Finally being at Triple-A means being one step closer to the ultimate goal of reaching the major leagues. Hardman said he is working on his consistency in order to make it to the next level.
“It’s a really long year and you’re going to have waves when you go up and down. You want to ride the high waves as long as you can and you want to keep the low ones as short as possible,” Hardman said. “So just being as consistent as possible. You don’t want to be the streaky hitter that’s good for a week and has to find it again. The hardest part of our sport is being consistent. Just as a whole be the same type of person every day.”
A native of Mission Viejo, California, Hardman was originall selected in the no-longer-existent 37th round of the 2017 MLB Draft by the Colorado Rockies out of Temescal Canyon High School in Lake Elsinore. He didn’t sign and instead went to the University of Oklahoma before being taken by the Yankees in the fifth round of the 2021 Draft.
Hardo can do it all.
Tyler Hardman@Yankees#Sooners | #MLBDraftpic.twitter.com/TAvYwSjAeU
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) July 12, 2021
As a former Sooner, he was thrilled to see the outcome of this year’s College World Series, with Oklahoma taking down the University of North Carolina to win its first championship since 1994.
“It was awesome to see them take the championship home and it was good to see skip and them get some good recognition,” Hardman said. “It was really cool to text them and watch the World Series.”
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