The New York Yankees are undoubtedly one of the best teams in the American League, but if they had one weakness, it would be the bullpen. Before the start of Sunday’s slate of games, New York’s relievers rank 10th in MLB in ERA, 26th in strikeouts, and 27th in innings pitched. These lopsided statistics stem from the success of New York’s starting rotation, which now features healthy versions of Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón in addition to one of the league’s best pitchers in Cam Schlittler. The Yankees certainly don’t have a bad bullpen, but most of their losses lately have stemmed from a few struggling relievers.
Instead of giving up assets to acquire another arm, they could just take the internal route and call up one of their most promising pitching prospects, Carlos Lagrange. The 23-year-old right-hander, who stands at 6’7″ and weighs 248 pounds, had an impressive Spring Training with the Yankees this March. Across 16 1/3 innings, Lagrange notched 17 strikeouts with a 4.96 ERA, allowing three home runs and walking six batters.
More impressively, the young starter notched 103 miles per hour on the radar gun multiple times, prompting Cole to praise Lagrange for his velocity, which “is like, silly…I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s wild. I’m just blown away by the velocity every time.” He may not succeed right away, but what is stopping the Yankees from giving him a shot in the Majors?
Growing Pains
Unlike Spencer Jones, Lagrange hasn’t necessarily “earned” a promotion yet. He’s started 11 games so far for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, striking out 63 batters over 49 innings with an ERA of 4.41 and a 0-3 record. This is Lagrange’s first stint in Triple-A, as he earned the promotion through his Spring Training performance. He is racking up strikeouts at an insane rate, but he also still struggles with control (primarily in terms of walks). He averages about a walk per inning in the minors, which perhaps is a sign that he isn’t quite ready to be a starter. However, what if the Yankees gave him a shot as a reliever instead?
Reinforcements
Yankees fans know quite well how up and down the season typically goes for their team: start hot in April and May, dip into a June/July swoon, then rebound in August and September. That summer swoon is usually a mix of inconsistent offense and injuries, spearheaded by a worn-out bullpen that needs reinforcements. To prevent this from happening, the Yankees could try out Lagrange as a setup man instead of using, say, Camilo Doval, who throws just as hard as Lagrange but has a 5.06 ERA and a brWAR dipping into the negatives.
Tim Hill, Fernando Cruz, and Brent Headrick are currently carrying the heaviest loads and doing their jobs extremely well: the three pitchers have combined for 62 innings thus far with an average ERA of 2.14. It’s only June, so there is still so much season left, but the Yankees will have to account for the fact that their bullpen cannot keep being carried by a few reliables.
Of course, calling up Lagrange doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try to acquire another reliever before the trade deadline; it just can’t hurt to see what the team’s number four overall prospect can do for a few games or so. If he struggles, he can go right back down to work out the kinks, like his current teammate Jones is doing.
Main Photo Credit: Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images
