The New York Yankees have officially released their Non-Roster Invites for 2026 Spring Training, and among this group are two of their three best pitching prospects.
Carlos Lagrange and Ben Hess, both of whom are considered to be top-five prospects in the organization, have been extended invites to big league Spring Training and will get to display their skills in George M. Steinbrenner Field.
Lagrange is a consensus top-100 prospect who features a blistering fastball that has clocked in at 103 MPH in-game before, sitting around 98 MPH as a starter.
As for Hess, he was the team’s first-round pick in the 2024 and had a strong debut season between High-A Hudson Valley and Double-A Somerset.
Elmer Rodriguez, who is considered the best pitching prospect by most in the system, is already on the 40-man roster but will be participating in the World Baseball Classic as a member of Puerto Rico’s rotation.
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The Yankees Will Get a Good Look At Electric Pitching Duo
Last year’s non-roster invites for the Yankees included a right-handed pitching prospect named Cam Schlittler who finished his 2024 campaign in Double-A.
No one knew it at the time, but his time in camp and the experience he had facing off against big leaguers would help him hit the ground running in Somerset, quickly rising up prospect boards.
Carlos Lagrange and Ben Hess are higher-touted arms than Schlittler was at the time, and these two both have some Double-A experience under their belt as well.
Dubbed as ‘La Pistola’ for his freakish fastball velocity, Lagrange was referred to as ‘further along’ than Schlittler was at the end of the 2024 season, indicating that an MLB debut could come for him in 2026.
His power fastball has good vertical ride and elite velo, but he also throws two different sliders and a power chanegup that helped him strikeout 168 batters which was the third-most in MiLB last year.
Ben Hess may not be as highly ranked on prospect boards, but people should not forget about how excellent his debut season was in 2025.
The right-hander displayed an excellent fastball with good vertical movement with a low release height that creates some pretty deceptive angles for hitters.
His curveball and changeup have strong shapes and there’s a developing feel for a sweeping slider that helped him produce a 33% strikeout rate between High-A and Double-A.
Last year he walked 15% of batters faced through his first nine starts, but he settled down and walked just 8% of batters faced over his final 13 starts with an elite 2.23 FIP.
Both pitchers could get more looks than normal given some of the absences that you’ll expect in the pitching staff due to the World Baseball Classic.
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