TAMPA — It remains to be seen if Ryan Weathers, the hard-throwing lefty the Yankees acquired over the winter, is going to be the rotation “find” they envisioned after surrendering four prospects to the Marlins for him. Another rough outing against the Braves Friday ballooned Weathers’ spring ERA to 8.68 for three starts, which is about the only not-so-good news out of the Yankee camp this spring.
But fret not Yankee legions. For even if Weathers continues to fall short of the front office’s glowing expectations, when it comes to starting pitching, the Yankees’ future couldn’t be brighter. For in Carlos Lagrange, Elmer Rodriguez and Ben Hess, all of whom lit up the radar guns and wowed the scouts in their brief spring outings before being shipped off to the minor league camp, the Yankees have three legitimate top-tier starting pitching prospects in all of baseball. It’s not a matter of if they will maintain their dominance to the big league level but when.
The 6-7, 22-year old Lagrange has averaged 101.5 mph in his three spring outings, which has prompted speculation that perhaps the Yankees might consider switching him to relief and add an enticing lethal weapon to their suspect bullpen. But as one baseball exec told me: “They would be crazy to do that, at least not now. An arm like that, you ride it, you don’t fool around with it.” And even Aaron Boone, who’s been effusive in his praise of Lagrange, has talked about him strictly as a starter.
Barring an injury to one of the starters, Lagrange is ticketed to start the season at Triple-A Scranton, as is Rodriguez and probably Hess. But it could be a scenario similar to what the Rays did with David Price in 2008. Price was their No. 1 draft pick out of Vanderbilt in 2007 who they started off at A ball in ’08 only to have him zoom through three levels of the minors with a 12-1 record. But instead of sending him home after the minor league season was over, they brought him up and boldly installed him as their closer in the postseason where he maintained his dominance, yielding just one run with eight strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings of work in the ALCS and World Series, with a win and a save.
It is the opinion of a couple of scouts I talked to earlier in the spring that the 22-year-old Rodriguez, whom the Yankees acquired from the Red Sox last year for catcher Carlos Narvaez, was even farther ahead of Lagrange. After impressing with five strikeouts in six innings in his first two outings for the Yankees this spring, Rodriguez went off to join Puerto Rico in the WBC and dominated with three scoreless innings in his start against Cuba last Monday.
As for the 6-5, 23-year old Hess, the Yankees first round pick out of Alabama in the 2023 draft, he was equally impressive in his two spring outings before being sent to the minor league complex, striking out six and yielding just one run over 5 innings. Originally projected for a 2027 ETA, scouts who’ve watched him this spring think that’s become accelerated.
While there remains uncertainty about the bullpen and the bench, and whether Jose Caballero can adequately command shortstop for the long haul, one area where there should be no concerns for the Yankees this year is starting pitching. (By the way did I mention that Will Warren, since moving to the third base side of the rubber has been the Yankees’ most effective starter this spring — 1.65 ERA, 12 strikeouts and only two walks in 16 1/3 innings?) It remains the most expensive commodity in baseball (witness Dylan Cease landing a seven year, $210 million contract from the Blue Jays this winter) but it would appear the Yankees have a wealth of it for years to come.
IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD
One thing about Yankee President Randy Levine, tapped by President Trump to head up the commission for college sports reform, as a former MLB labor chief who was finally able to negotiate resolution to the 1994-95 shutdown of the game, no one is more well versed on the issue of big markets vs. small markets. And really, in a way, isn’t that sort of what this out-of-control NIL money matter is all about: The smaller market schools of the ACC, Pac 12 and Big 12 no longer able to compete with the Big Ten and the SEC for top talent? … Baseball Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark and the board of directors, in an inspired decision, created an award to honor Negro Leagues pioneer Buck O’Neil and those individuals with the qualities of everything he stood for — character, integrity, dignity, courage. In retrospect, the award, because of what it stands for, has become just as prestigious as a Hall of Fame induction itself and in that regard there could not be a more worthy recipient than this year’s selection, Bill White. Besides being a border line Hall of Fame player himself — .286, 202 homers from 1956-69 with the Giants, Cardinals and Phillies — White further distinguished himself as a top-tier broadcaster with the Yankees from 1971-88, and then as baseball’s first high-level Black executive as National League president from 1989-94. As a player, White led the way in desegregating St. Petersburg, the Cardinals spring training home, by publicly decrying Black players on the team being refused service or admittance in restaurants, hotels and the St. Petersburg Yacht Club. As National League President he fought bitterly with later-ousted Commissioner Fay Vincent, especially over disciplinary measures, presided over the 1993 expansion to Colorado and Miami, and successfully saved the Giants for San Francisco by rejecting an offer for the team from St. Petersburg interests and brokering a deal in which owner Bob Lurie wound up selling the team to a local group. …Nice that the Mets have decided to retire No. 15 in honor of Carlos Beltran going into the Hall of Fame next summer, but it seems to me no more numbers should be retired by them until No. 8 for Gary Carter. The Mets’ continual snub of Hall of Famer Carter, a pivotal player in the team’s history as the first building block of the 1986 championship club, is both mystifying and downright embarrassing.