Among a flurry of moves the New York Yankees made Thursday involving the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, one jumped off the page:
Right-handed pitcher Carlos Lagrange placed on the seven-day injured list.
Lagrange is the Yankees’ No. 4-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline. He has spent the last month transitioning from the starting rotation to the bullpen with New York considering him as a possible big-league relief addition. Now, that has been put on hold with his trip to the IL.
Various reports indicate that Lagrange is dealing with a shoulder injury and set for an MRI. But after Thursday’s game against the Norfolk Tides at PNC Field in Pennsylvania, RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan said he didn’t think it was anything serious.
“With a guy like Lagrange, anything pops up, you’re protective of the guy,” Duncan said. “I don’t know the details, the little ones. But it’s nothing alarming.”
During the first two months of the season, Lagrange made 11 starts and had an 0-3 record with a 4.41 ERA]. He allowed 25 runs (24 earned) and 40 hits in 49 innings with 25 walks and 63 strikeouts. He impressed with a fastball that could reach 100 mph.
Lagrange was moved to the bullpen in June and the process of making him a reliever began. He earned his first Triple-A win at Syracuse on June 3rd, pitching four shutout franes with one hit, two walks, and seven strikeouts. He notched his first Triple-A save at Indianapolis on June 25th, working the final 1.1 innings and allowing one hit with two strikeouts.
However, in his last relief outing, also at Indianapolis on June 28th, Lagrange entered the game in the bottom of the seventh inning and the RailRiders leading, 4-1. He recorded just two outs and gave up five runs and four hits with two walks and one strikeout and took the loss, 6-5.
In seven relief appearances, Lagrange was 1-1 with one save and a 5.02 ERA. He allowed 12 runs (eight earned) and 13 hits in 14.1 innings with 8 walks and 20 strikeouts. Overall this season, he is 1-4 with a 4.55 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 63.1 innings. That K total ranks fifth in the International League.
Throughout the month, the Yankees and RailRiders were careful to space out Lagrange’s appearances. He pitched June 3rd, June 9th, June 14th, June 18th, June 21st, June 25th, and then June 28th. Duncan wasn’t sure if that contributed at all to his injury.
“It could be, but we don’t know,” Duncan said. “I’m sure it’s some we’ll dig into. When you transition from starter to bullpen, bullpen to starter, you have a different routine, different things. But we don’t know. We’ll look into it.”
Duncan also provided an update days earlier on the status of infielder George Lombard Jr. The Yankees’ top prospect has been on the injured list since June 18th. During a game June 16th in Columbus, he reached for a throw into a sliding runner on a stolen base attempt and suffered two sprained fingers on his left (catching) hand.
“It’s day to day,” Duncan said. “It’s nothing bad, but we don’t want to bring him back when it’s still sore and lingering. We want to bring him back when he’s 100 percent. So we’re taking our time with that and letting him go at his own pace.”
It remains to be seen how the injuries to Lagrange and Lombard will affect their status for the All-Star Futures Game on July 12th at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Both players were selected to the American League squad on Wednesday.
Elmer Rodríguez, the Yankees’ No. 2 prospect, had one of his best outings of the season Thursday night at PNC Field. He threw 6.1 quality innings and allowed three runs on eight hits with two walks and six strikeouts. He threw 93 pitches, 60 for strikes. Backed by four home runs, he earned the win, 7-3.
“I felt good from the start. I felt like I was attacking the hitters, comfortable throwing every single pitch,” Rodríguez said. “Obviously they got some hits and some tough spots, I kept attacking and feel like I got some good results.”
With two outs in the top of the third, Norfolk put together three consecutive singles to score its first run. The first two hits were slow rollers that found holes before Heston Kjerstad lined a hit to center field to knock in Enrique Bradfield Jr. and make it 3-1. But Kjerstad was thrown out trying to advance to second on the play to end the inning.
In the top of the sixth, Kjerstad hit the first pitch from Rodríguez out to center field for a home run to cut the Tides deficit to 3-2. Rodríguez then walked Ryan Noda with one out and allowed a two-out single to Mike Siani. But he came back and struck out Silas Ardoin on three pitches to end the threat.
“That leadoff home run in the sixth, sometimes you have to tip your cap to the hitters,” Duncan said. “That’s not easy to do. He’s aggressive in the strike zone first pitch, doing what we wanted to do to get ahead and he got a good piece of wood on it. It happens.
“But if you look at (Rodríguez’s) performance overall, he was attacking the strike zone, finishing hitters when he got to two strikes. That’s a recipe for success right there. He had good command of his fastballl tonight, breaking balls were pretty nasty. Excellent finishing pitches tonight. That was one of the best performances we’ve seen out of him, stuff-wise and command matched together. He had a real good outing.”
Rodríguez improved to 4-3 with a 2.93 ERA.
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