Ryan Garcia
The New York Yankees chose to option Luis Gil back to Triple-A after a hideous start against the Houston Astros where he looked completely outmatched.
While an off-day on Thursday could allow the Yankees to go with a four-man rotation this next go-around, Carlos Rodon will not return in time to completely cover the absence of a fifth starter.
New York will have to make a decision on who will fill that role for a start (or two), and it seems that they could be leaning towards using their farm system.
Elmer Rodriguez and Carlos Lagrange have both been ranked as top-100 prospects across various national outlets such as Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America, and we could see one of them in the next week or so.
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Why the Yankees Could Go With Elmer Rodriguez or Carlos Lagrange
Despite the reputation for holding prospects down for years, the Yankees have been fairly aggressive with debuting prospects especially on the pitching side.
It should be no surprise to hear that the Yankees are considering promoting one of their prospects to fill-in as the fifth starter until Carlos Rodon comes back.
Elmer Rodriguez has received heavy consideration for the call-up as he’s already on the 40-man roster and has displayed very steady traits in his time as a Minor Leaguer.
Through four starts in Triple-A, Rodriguez has a 1.27 ERA and 25.6% K%, displaying excellent groundball rates due to a mid-90s sinker that has good life.
Carlos Lagrange is not an afterthought inside the organization, but by needing to be placed on the 40-man roster and having a more volatile skillset, there’s some risk in using him for 1-2 starts before demoting him.
He has added a sinker to help limit some of his deficiencies in terms of being a bit predictable with his fastball location, but more seasoning in the Minor Leagues would greatly benefit him.
Another avenue the Yankees could go that would bore fans is using Ryan Yarbrough as a starter, but it would place a significant tax on their bullpen since he likely is not built up enough to toss 80-90 pitches.
Add that they would be using a bullpen game in the middle of a 13-game stretch without offdays and you would have a difficult time arguing that the use of Rodriguez in a spot-start is an irrational decision.
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