Carlos Lagrange turned pro during the 2022 International Free Agent Signing Period, as the Yankees would sign him alongside 33 other promising players out of various Latin American countries.
A problematic process that needs its own article to properly delve into, it requires literal teenagers to make pre-existing agreements with teams when they’re 12 or 13 that will become official at the age of 16 or 17.
This is of course explicitly illegal in the MLB CBA, but they don’t really enforce it and every team participates in it, but less-heralded prospects tend to make agreements closer to the actual signing day.
For Lagrange, he would be one of the Yankees least-expensive signings; under 0.01% of their IFA pool money from that class was allocated to him, and yet he stands as one of the best prospects from that class league-wide.
He’s already turning heads in camp as the right-hander blew 102.6 MPH by Aaron Judge to strike him out, but how did someone so freakishly gifted go seemingly unnoticed in the Dominican Republic?
READ MORE: Yankees’ Aaron Judge opens up about roster contruction and free agency moves
How the Yankees Stumbled into a Premium Pitching Talent
Carlos Lagrange did not have this freakish fastball velocity as an IFA signee, if he did the number he signed for would almost certaintly have reached into seven figures.
In an interview with the Somerset Patriots, Lagrange mentioned that he had been throwing 93-95 MPH in showcases before signing, and that he shocked the Yankees when he hit 98 MPH in his first time throwing in front of them.
Fast-forward to the 2024 season and he was sitting around 96-97 MPH, hitting that 98 MPH mark more frequently and topping out at 99 MPH in games.
The lack of tolerable command at the time was a real issue, walking 20% of batters faced between the Complex League and Single-A, but what further worsened the issue was his incredibly unpolished pitch mix.
He threw a four-seamer that averaged about 15 inches of Induced Vertical Break while not having a strong feel for his secondaries, hitters were able to read the fastball even with its excellent velocity and he couldn’t get swings out of zone.
This all changed for Carlos Lagrange in 2025, where he added three inches of ride to his fastball, started throwing a sweeper to pair with his slider, and began developing an excellent feel for a 90 MPH changeup.
All of his secondary pitches registered a Whiff% of at least 40% last MiLB season between High-A and Double-A, and his fastball was able to maintain a Zone% above 52%.
Lagrange’s sudden development of quality secondaries and an improved fastball shape were miraculous, the kinds of strides that pitchers spend their entire Minor League career chasing after were made in just one offseason.
Even his best trait, which was his raw fastball velocity, saw an improvement as he went from sitting 97.1 MPH in 2024 to 98.5 MPH in 2025.
Since the start of the Pitch Tracking Era (2008) I sorted to find the Major League pitchers who had a similar-or-greater workload innings-wise to Carlos Lagrange (120 IP) and sorted through their average fastball velocity:
Carlos Lagrange would be fifth on a list consisting of 1,956 individual pitching seasons in terms of average fastball velocity, with Sandy Alcantara’s 4.00 xFIP being the worst mark in the entire group.
There is some survivorship bias here; pitchers who are bad rarely get to pitch 120 innings in a single season and will either be demoted, phantom IL’d, or placed on the IL for real because their poor performance was injury-related.
With that being said, throwing hard and run prevention do have a positive correlation, and Carlos Lagrange is one of the hardest throwing starters we’ve been able to monitor in the Pitch Tracking Era.
The improvements of his sweeper, slider, and changeup give him the ability to spin the ball in different directions and keep him from being a one-trick pony, which does limit the reliever risk more than people think.
Seeing a hard-throwing tall right-hander will make you think of Dellin Betances, Aaron Boone even echoed this sentiment over the weekend, but there’s a bit of context being ignored in the comparison.
The Yankees gave Dellin Betances three years after his promotion from High-A to Double-A to figure it out as a starting pitcher before finally giving up and moving him to the bullpen.
Lagrange should not and will not be moved to a permanent reliever role on Opening Day when there is a very real possibility that his outcome is a starting pitcher.
Much like with Betances, the Yankees will push the 22-year-old from the Dominican Republic to start until the signs are obvious that he simply cannot do it.
Sure, command is an issue for Lagrange, but there have been massive leaps in development on that front and he has a starter’s mix.
Betances did not have the true plus changeup that Carlos Lagrange currently does, and I do not believe he would be sitting 98 MPH in a starter’s role.
We are not looking at a prospect who can only throw hard; this is a pitcher who has plus shapes, plus velocity, can move the ball all around a pitch plot, and might still have room to add a sinker or cutter.
International Free Agents rarely become big leaguers; the ones that do are perceived as massive organizational successes across the league especially if they achieve the status of being a consistent cog to a contending machine.
The Yankees have missed on a lot of their big IFA spends; Roderick Arias headlined the very class that Carlos Lagrange came out of and has fallen off of the top 30 list for the organization on various outlets including ours.
Carlos Lagrange is not who he was expected to become when he signed to a $10,000 signing bonus, and it’s why the organization isn’t going to write him off as a potential Game 1 starter down the road.
A 2026 debut with the Yankees isn’t off the table; and with the way he’s progressed over the course of his pro career, it would be hard to put a ceiling on what Lagrange could become.
More about:New York Yankees
