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Manager Aaron Boone of the New York Yankees speaks to media.
Even with spring training camp opening Wednesday in Tampa, the New York Yankees continue to make sometimes difficult personnel decisions at all levels of their organization. On the first day of camp, the club decided that it had to release a pitcher who was once considered one of the most promising arms in the game.
Whether the Yankees’ decision spells an early end to the career of Justin Lange at just 24 years old will become clear shortly, if another team invites him to its minor league training camp. If not, it would be a painful end for Lange, who was drafted in the first round in 2020 by the San Diego Padres.
The Yankees announced that they had cut ties with Lange via the official transactions ledger of their Single-A affiliate, the Tampa Tarpons.
The Padres made the Llano High School right-hander in Texas the 34th overall pick in 2020, in the compensatory portion of the first round. But Lange’s career got off to a rough start. That was the year the COVID-19 pandemic canceled all minor league seasons, but it also truncated Lange’s senior season in high school.
His senior year was an important one. That was when he saw a significant jump in his fastball velocity, attracting heightened attention from big league clubs and earning him the No. 50 ranking on a Baseball America list of top 500 draft prospects. Before that, he had committed to play at Dallas Baptist as an infielder.
Yankees Acquire Lange in Big Trade
The Padres signed Lange with a $2 million bonus, slightly below the assigned value for his draft slot of $2,148,100. By 2022, the 6-foot-4, 220-pound righty rose to become the No. 16-ranked prospect in the San Diego system, according to Baseball America.
But already, injuries were slowing his progress.
At the Padres alternate training site during the 2020 minor league shutdown, Lange was hampered by shoulder fatigue. When he finally made his pro debut the following year in the rookie-level Arizona Complex League, he was limited to just 22 innings over one game by a knee injury.
“His fastball has exceptional carry and sits 95-98 mph when he’s healthy, although his balky knee sapped him of velocity,” a Baseball America scouting report said.
Prior to the 2022 season, the Padres decided they needed more offensive power and, in an indication of how highly Lange was still valued, they were able to trade the pitching prospect in a straight-up deal for Yankees first baseman and DH Luke Voit, the 2020 American League home run champion.
Injuries Derail Lange’s Development
After throwing 85 1/3 innings over 21 starts for the Tarpons and the Yankees High-A affiliate — the Hudson Valley Renegades — in 2023, another shoulder injury stopped Lange’s progress.
The shoulder trouble wiped out the pitching prospect’s entire 2024 season, and the first two months of 2025 as well.
The Yankees activated him from the 60-day injured list in June and returned him to the mound in an official capacity after three rehab outings. After three outings in the Florida Complex League, Lange appeared to be back on track, allowing no hits and striking out six in 4 1/3 innings. But things didn’t go as well after his promotion to the Tarpons, where he gave up five earned runs in 5 1/3 innings on nine hits.
Apparently, the Yankees had seen enough, and Lange’s hopes of catching on with the Bronx Bombers ended with his release on Wednesday.
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin
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