As the Minor League season comes to an end, the Yankees got to see one of their top prospects take the mound for the final time in the regular season.
Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz delivered a solid performance in his 2025 finale, limiting the Fighting Phils to two runs over five innings of work, striking out seven and walking three.
It was another performance where Cruz’s excellent breaking and offspeed pitches racked up swings and misses as he took the Minor League lead in strikeouts (173).
Barring a historic performance, ERC will end the year as Minor League Baseball’s strikeout king with a chance to make an impact on the 2025 squad.
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Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz Finishes Dominant First Season With the Yankees
Both the Yankees and Red Sox have been pleasantly surprised with how their offseason swap has worked out to this point, with Boston getting an excellent rookie season from rookie catcher Carlos Narvaez.
Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz has been better than anyone could have imagined this year, going from an erratic thrower in 2024 who had yet to advance past High-A in three years to a near MLB-ready starter.
I’ve raved about his depth of arsenal and how well he spins the ball in multiple directions, but I never expected him to have this much feel for all six of his pitches.
The best way to describe ERC’s arsenal is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, there isn’t an outlier pitch in his mix but when you have all six of those pitches you can be unhittable.
Outside of leading all Minor League pitchers in strikeouts, Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz is 4th in xFIP (2.78), 2nd in FIP (2.45), and 12th in ERA (2.42).
His profile is centered around getting whiffs and limiting damage contact, sporting the 14th-best strikeout rate (29.6%) and the 12th-best groundball rate (54.8%) as well.
No pitcher in Minor League Baseball with a strikeout rate at or above 27% had a higher groundball rate than Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz did this season.
Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz bares a striking similarity to Will Warren in his build, as both were wirey right-handers who spun the ball well.
Warren has better movement, Cruz has better velocity, but the deep mixes and lower arm angle are pillars of their identities as starting pitchers.
If the Yankees can keep Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz on the right track, he could end up being an impactful arm for the team in 2026, giving them more pitching depth to protect from injuries.
Since the Yankees are contenders, I’d be shocked if they have him come up at the start of the 2026 campaign, but if he were in an organization with less talent or one that was rebuilding, he might have been an Opening Day roster add.
His pitchability is through the roof, and if the stuff arsenal continues getting better, Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz could end up being a great get for the Yankees.
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