{"id":120815,"date":"2026-04-28T14:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=120815"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:36:07","slug":"yankees-call-up-elmer-rodriguez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/28\/yankees-call-up-elmer-rodriguez\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Call Up Elmer Rodriguez, The Team&#8217;s Number Three Prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Yankees are calling up right-handed pitcher <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=rodrig000elm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elmer Rodriguez<\/a>, the team&#8217;s third overall prospect according to <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/milb\/prospects\/yankees\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MLB Pipeline<\/a>. The 22 year-old will make his Major League debut on Wednesday in New York&#8217;s series finale against the Texas Rangers. Rodriguez is the presumable (and likely temporary) replacement for <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gillu01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luis Gil<\/a>, who is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/26\/yankees-option-former-rookie-of-the-year\/\" target=\"_self\">already in the minor leagues<\/a> as the Yankees decided to send him down after Sunday&#8217;s 7-4 loss to the Houston Astros.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Elmer Rodriguez will make his Major League debut against the Rangers in Texas, Aaron Boone told <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TalkinYanks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TalkinYanks<\/a>: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/f0PJyDQaMF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/f0PJyDQaMF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bryan Hoch \u26be\ufe0f (@BryanHoch) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BryanHoch\/status\/2049136456619233534?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez, who appeared in two Spring Training games last month and gave up two runs over 6 innings, is one of New York&#8217;s most exciting and highly regarded prospects. In his first minor league season in the Yankees&#8217; organization last year, he made the jump from High-A to Triple-A, posting a cumulative 2.58 ERA with 176 strikeouts, 57 walks, and just 3 home runs allowed across 150 innings. This season so far with the Railriders, Rodriguez has <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/27\/tim-hill-having-stellar-season-2026\/\" target=\"_self\">continued to dominate<\/a>, tossing 21 1\/3 innings to the tune of a 1.27 ERA and 20 strikeouts.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Elmer Rodriguez is being called up by the Yankees.<\/p>\n<p>Triple-A: 21.1 IP, 1.27 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 9% BB, 25.6% K<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez ranked #95 in my April Top 500.<\/p>\n<p>Worth a look in 12+ team leagues. <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RepBX?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#RepBX<\/a><a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qXpcFgzfrV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/qXpcFgzfrV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Eric Cross (@EricCrossMLB) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EricCrossMLB\/status\/2049145227278008427?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Rapid Ascent<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBWwh6WCq1\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 7204px; aspect-ratio: 7204\/4804;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>The Yankees are usually quite hesitant to bring up their prospects &#8220;too early&#8221;, especially when the Major League roster already has enough depth and talent to the point where young, undeveloped talent wouldn&#8217;t add much. Even <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/schlica01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cam Schlittler<\/a>, who is already on his way to becoming one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/09\/two-yankees-starting-rotation-x-factors-2026\/\" target=\"_self\">best pitchers in the league<\/a>, wasn&#8217;t called up to the Bronx until last season, when he was already 24. At just 22 years of age, Rodriguez has a chance to not just earn a spot on the big league roster, but to pave the way for fellow prospects, like starter Carlos Lagrange, to get their shot sooner than later.<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez has a fastball that sits around 96 and tops out at 99, and his breaking pitches are almost big-league ready, so even if his big league debut doesn&#8217;t go that well on Wednesday, the Yankees still have another very promising young pitcher making his way through the ranks. With Rodriguez&#8217;s level of talent and track record of success throughout the minors, he could stay in the Yankees&#8217; rotation for more than just one start, but with their All-Star starters in <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/colege01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gerrit Cole<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rodonca01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carlos Rodon<\/a> coming back, he&#8217;ll just have to wait a little longer for a shot at a long-term role in the rotation.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em><strong>(Top Image Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Yankees are calling up right-handed pitcher Elmer Rodriguez, the team&#8217;s third overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline. The 22 year-old will make his Major League debut on Wednesday in New York&#8217;s series finale against the Texas Rangers. Rodriguez is the presumable (and likely temporary) replacement for Luis Gil, who is already in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5148,"featured_media":120828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,926,1071,35],"tags":[29251,41],"class_list":["post-120815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yankees","category-featured","category-milb","category-mlb","category-news","tag-elmer-rodriguez","tag-new-york-yankees"],"modified_by":"Matthew Nethercott, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120815"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120829,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120815\/revisions\/120829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}