Ryan Garcia
Carlos Lagrange pitched out of the bullpen for the Yankees in their Spring Training victory of the Blue Jays last night, and he showed off outlier-levels of velocity.
Sporting an elite changeup and two nasty slider shapes, the Yankees might have their next ace in the right-hander, who looks more and more like a starting pitcher as the months go by.
He’s not just a prospect the team is trying to pump up the stock for in order to faciliate a trade, they’re hoping to have him next to Gerrit Cole and Max Fried in that rotation one day.
A power pitcher who has risen from interesting to a cannot-miss name in the system, Carlos Lagrange is putting himself in serious consideration to make his 2026 MLB debut.
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The Carlos Lagrange Hype Train Has Hit Overdrive; and the Yankees Are Paying Attention
Whenever Carlos Lagrange pitches, people inside the Yankees’ organization flock to watch him pitch and have been incredibly impressed with what they’ve seen to this point.
His stuff is electric, and last night he continued to break stuff models by sitting 101.5 MPH on his four-seam fastball against the Blue Jays.
This isn’t normal; only one pitcher in the Pitch Tracking Era (since 2008) has thrown at least 40 pitches in an outing while sitting 101.5 MPH on their fastball, and that was Jacob Misirowski in the 2025 NLDS.
Even more impressive is that he’s maintained good vertical movement on his fastball, which at the top of the zone is going to create tons of swings and misses.
The fastball isn’t the only reason why scouts rave about Lagrange, his secondary pitches are excellent and it allows him to miss bats against righties and lefties.
His power changeup sitting in the low-90s with good downward movement can be devastating against hitters when located well, last season he generated a Whiff% over 40% on that pitch.
Pair that with two different slider shapes, and you have a pitcher who is able to move the ball around the plate well with elite movement and excellent velocity.
Through three Spring Training outings we’ve seen better command as well, walking just 8.3% of batters faced with a 64% Strike%, certainly not the marks of an elite locator but vastly improved from his 2025 marks.
Last season he never had a Double-A outing without walking at least one batter, and he never had a stretch where he walked under 9% of batters faced over three starts.
The Yankees believe he could come up this year, and if it’s as a reliever they’ll be more than happy to add this kind of power fastball to their bullpen.
Carlos Lagrange doesn’t just look like a thrower, he looks like someone who understands how to pitch and has the weapons to keep hitters off-balance.
Oftentimes you see pitchers with power fastballs lean on that pitch too much because their other offerings are underdeveloped, but that’s not the case for the 22-year-old.
He’s throwing his four-seamer under 50% of the time during Grapefruit League action and did the same thing during his 2025 MiLB season where he broke out.
There’s a special talent coming up through the Yankees’ pipeline, and I’m not sure if people are ready for when he arrives in the Bronx.
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