Why Yankees fans should pump the brakes on phenom pitcher Carlos Lagrange
Yankees starting pitcher Carlos Lagrange throws against the Chicago Cubs during the third inning of a spring training game Monday in Mesa, Ariz. Credit: AP/Ross D. Franklin
MESA, Ariz. — Carlos Lagrange is taking his 6-7 frame and 103-mph fastball to Triple-A to start the season.
How long the 22-year-old phenom stays there will be among the Yankees’ more fascinating storylines this season.
Lagrange caused more buzz during Yankees spring training this year than any other player, entering Monday afternoon’s exhibition game with a 0.66 ERA in his first four outings. He allowed eight runs, nine hits and two walks in 2 2⁄3 innings in the Yankees’ 15-6 loss to the Cubs at Sloan Park, but that mostly can be ignored.
Lagrange allowed home runs by Michael Busch and Alex Bregman but did strike out four, giving him 17 strikeouts and six walks in 15 1⁄3 innings. Two of those strikeouts on Monday came on changeups and two came on sliders.
“The off-speed’s what makes him special,” manager Aaron Boone said before the Yankees played their first spring training game in Arizona since 1951 (they trained in Phoenix for just that year). “His fastball’s great, it’s 100, 102, but his secondary is what makes him potentially so good. And what’s been exciting is just his consistency in this six weeks we’ve seen of the strike-throwing. If he continues that, he’ll be impacting us before long.”
The question: Just how long will that be? Despite much of the noise accompanying Lagrange this month, he isn’t guaranteed to make his debut in 2026.
The Yankees currently have a deep stable of starting pitchers, and if their rehabs continue to go well, three additional starters will come off the injured list at various points. Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon are due back in the early part of the season and Clarke Schmidt could join them by late August or early September.
Max Fried, who will start Wednesday’s season opener in San Francisco, will be followed, at least at the beginning, by Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers. Luis Gil will start the season either in the bullpen or in the minors; the Yankees don’t need a fifth starter right away because of multiple off days.
The Yankees also stretched out Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn, and if the need for a spot starter were to arise, both would be options before Lagrange. Another of the club’s top pitching prospects, righthander Elmer Rodriguez, likely would be, too.
Rodriguez, 22, flew somewhat under the radar despite having a standout camp of his own, which included some quality innings for Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. He is considered by many rival talent evaluators to be a bit more polished as a starter than Lagrange is.
No, the more probable scenario — and this has been the case all along — is that if Lagrange does make his big-league debut this season, he will do so as a bullpen piece. (Barring a cataclysmic set of injuries to the starters, of course.)
None of which is a slight against Lagrange and his electrifying pitching; it’s just that the brakes should be pumped a tad on the hype machine. That was the case even before Monday.
Going against the “A’’ lineup of a team expected to be a playoff contender this season, Lagrange did not blow away Cubs hitters with the regularity he did in his previous four appearances, in which opposing teams maybe had five or six of their top hitters in the lineup (which is typically how it goes in spring training games).
“Definitely the best lineup I’ve faced this spring,” Lagrange said through his interpreter. “It jumps out that they know how to look for a pitch and be ready to attack in different counts. Falling [behind] doesn’t help when you’re facing those guys.”
It was a tough day in what overall was a terrific first big-league camp experience for Lagrange, who impressed coaches and teammates with his work ethic and his attention to detail and by taking full advantage of being in the same clubhouse as established veterans such as Cole, Fried and Rodon, constantly picking their brains.
And, Monday’s results notwithstanding, Lagrange got his share of big-league hitters out in spring training, which only built on the self-belief he brought into camp.
“I wanted to feel that I could compete [at this level], face guys and challenge guys and throw pitches in the strike zone, being aggressive attacking the zone, and I was able to do that. You get confidence from doing that,” said the outgoing Lagrange, whose personality quickly made him a hit in the clubhouse.
After getting reassigned to minor-league camp last week, Lagrange still got to make the cross-country flight here for one last outing, joining many of the players with whom he hopes to share the biggest stage sooner rather than later.
“Great experience to travel with the team, have fun, see how it is with the big-league club,” he said. “It leaves you wanting more, and it gives you hunger to keep working hard to get to it.”
Notes & quotes: Spencer Jones, who also has been reassigned to Triple-A, hit his fifth and sixth homers of spring training and is batting .385.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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