The Result Carries Weight
The New York Yankees are giving one of their top prospects a new role. The club is moving hard-throwing righty Carlos Lagrange from the Triple-A rotation to the bullpen, the YES Network reported, testing whether he can help the big league team before the trade deadline.
"He's definitely got everyone's attention," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said during spring training, via MLB.com. "I love where he's at. I would not be surprised if he is impacting us early, middle, later part of the season. We're all very excited about his continued development."
The title of the job changes quickly; the explanation usually takes a little longer to catch up.
Lagrange, 23, entered the season as the 49th-best prospect in baseball. He averages 99.1 mph with his fastball in Triple-A this year and has topped out at 103.1 mph. According to Statcast, 29 of the fastest pitches by a starting pitcher in Triple-A this season belong to him, along with 44 of the top 50.
The Moment That Swung It
He also mixes in a slider and changeup, giving him three usable pitches. The transition raises an obvious question: can a starter's arsenal play in relief?
The Yankees bullpen posts a 3.59 ERA, ranking tenth in MLB, and a 3.44 expected ERA, sixth in the league. Those numbers are solid. But the unit ranks 26th in win probability added, which is a quieter way of saying there have been too many blown saves and messy setup innings.
New York's relievers also sit near the bottom of the league in average fastball velocity and swing-and-miss rate on fastballs. They survive by getting ground balls and chasing hitters with breaking stuff out of the zone, not by blowing pitches past anyone. A power arm like Lagrange's would change that equation.
The Race Tightens
Lagrange has pitched to a 4.41 ERA in 11 starts and 49 innings for the RailRiders. His strikeout rate sits at 29.0%, well above the 21.1% Triple-A average for starters. The walk rate is 11.5%, slightly above the 10.3% norm. That command gap is the biggest red flag in his profile.
If the experiment works, it could lower the Yankees' urgency to buy a reliever at the deadline. But even if Lagrange nails down the role, New York would still browse the trade market. A promising prospect with no MLB experience and nohistory as a reliever is not the same thing as a proven late-inning answer.
The Yankees are 36-23 and one game behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. Their plus-98 run differential leads the American League by 67 runs.