TAMPA, Fla. — At the end of all those baseball showcases in Orange County, Calif., the format would often be the same. Few of the coaches and children who had come together for the day knew one another. The director would stand in front of the players and call out the names of those who had excelled that day: the best fielder, the best arm, the best hitter.

The name Robert Refsnyder was called out frequently, and as the Korean-born boy rose to accept his award, the people looked at him almost in bewilderment. The face did not match the name.

“Yeah, that’s me,” he would say, laughing to himself. “I’m Rob Refsnyder.”

At some point this year, whether in spring training, on opening day or later in the regular season, Refsnyder is likely to be introduced to Yankees fans for the first time, and some of them may look at him with the same bemused expression that the players and coaches at those California showcases wore.

Refsnyder is a top Yankees prospect, a gifted hitter who has been invited to his first major league spring training this month and hopes to soon become the team’s starting second baseman. He was adopted from South Korea by parents with German and Irish backgrounds, as was his older sister, Elizabeth, who was a talented softball player in college.