Ryan Garcia
New York Yankees‘ GM Brian Cashman revealed to Joel Sherman of the New York Post that the organization has continued having discussions around moving Carlos Lagrange into the bullpen.
The hard-throwing right-hander has been solid at Triple-A, with some real hiccups in his profile that could limit his ability to contribute to the Major League club as a starter in the near future.
Given the Yankees’ rotation depth and Lagrange’s explosive repertoire I think a shift to the bullpen will not only help the Bronx Bombers win games, it will also benefit Lagrange’s development.
It’s a developmental path that’s worked for numerous starters across the league including some fairly high-profile names in recent Yankees’ history.
The 2026 Yankees have a chance to win a World Series, and Carlos Lagrange might already be one of their eight best relievers currently inside the organization.
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Is Carlos Lagrange Ready For the Yankees’ Bullpen?
Following a strong start last night where Carlos Lagrange tossed 5.1 innings of one-run baseball with six strikeouts, news broke that the team is considering shifting him to a bullpen role.
This wasn’t an anonymous leak, the New York Post revealed that it was Brian Cashman himself who told them about these conversations, which means this is something they are seriously considering.
Obviously the Yankees would have to move him into the bullpen at Triple-A first to see how he handles the routine, but I think this would be a perfect fit for the tall right-hander.
While his walk rate (11.5%) is sky-high on the surface, it’s actually right in line with the average walk rate for teams in Triple-A’s International League, which is also 11.5%.
I’d still grade his command as below-average and would project a worse-than-average walk rate for Carlos Lagrange as a Major League starter, but I’m not as worried that he’d have massive walk issues as a reliever.
When looking at the pitch mix, it’s perfect for a bullpen role since Carlos Lagrange has two power fastballs sitting at 98-99 MPH that could tick up to around 100 MPH if he’s coming out of the bullpen.
Furthermore, there are ways to cut pitches from his repertoire that are not exactly necessary out of the bullpen, such as his gyro slider which has allowed more home runs than any other pitch in his mix.
The lack of movement on this pitch makes it easy for him to zone, in fact its the only pitch Lagrange has landed inside the strike zone at least 50% of the time this season.
As a starter, a get-me-over breaking ball is sort of a necessity if you have bad command, but as a reliever you can skate by without that pitch since you aren’t going through lineups multiple times.
I’d recommend throwing more changeups since the pitch has outlier velocity with good movement separation off of his four-seamer, I think it could work against righties and lefties without hurting his walk rate much.
With a fastball-sinker-changeup-sweeper mix out of the bullpen, Carlos Lagrange would be well-equipped to get righties and lefties out at the big-league level.
The Yankees Could Make Carlos Lagrange a Starter Again Later
The Yankees have a good track record of moving pitching prospects who came up as starters into the bullpen, with Michael King being perhaps the most notable example.
While both he and King have a fastball-sinker-changeup-sweeper mix, I think this is more akin to what the Yankees did with Luis Severino in both 2016 and 2021.
He was a starter in the previous years but had moved to the bullpen for differing reasons, in 2016 it was poor performance and in 2021 it was because he didn’t have enough runway to build up as a starter after injuries.
In the year after, he remained a brilliant starting pitcher as Severino posted a 2.98 ERA in 31 starts in 2017 and in 2022 he had a 3.18 ERA across 19 starts.
Clarke Schmidt also moved to the bullpen after initially coming up for some spot starts in 2020 and 2021, with injuries limiting his time to develop as a starter in the Minor Leagues.
After a year in the bullpen in 2022 where he performed well, he would start developing as a starter and eventually produced some strong, albeit injury-riddled seasons as a starting pitcher.
Development can occur in a bullpen role for Carlos Lagrange because he can learn what it means to be a big-league pitcher and get some of the early-career jitters that are expected for a rookie.
I ultimately think it will help Lagrange to get his feet wet as a reliever before getting to work in the offseason as a starter again, and I also think the point of having prospects is for them to help you.
If the Yankees got an elite late-inning weapon out of Carlos Lagrange for a team in contention that desperately needs it, are they not getting the most out of him as a contributor?
Maybe he’d be more valuable as a starter, but the runway for that does not exist at the moment and you’d just be wasting bullets in Triple-A for most of the season.
It seems the Yankees believe he can do it in the bullpen, and I think all of the publicly available information we have supports the argument that Carlos Lagrange should get the chance to help this bullpen.
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