New York Yankees prospect Carlos Lagrange will turn 22 this month, and based on his latest pitching performances, the right-hander probably deserves a big birthday bash.
Lagrange has started four times this season for the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades. Of those starts, only his season opener was a disappointment (he allowed five runs in only two innings of work against the Brooklyn Cyclones on April 8). But since then, he’s been outstanding, pitching a cumulative 16 2/3 innings in three games while only allowing five runs (for a 2.78 ERA) and striking out 25 batters.
The three-game stretch with Hudson Valley builds upon Lagrange’s stint with the Salt River Rafters in the 2024 Arizona Fall League, which resulted in an ERA slightly over 2.00 across nearly nine innings.
Carlos Lagrange is an exciting pitching prospect, but can he make it to the New York Yankees?
It’s a promising, albeit relatively small, amount of data that points in the right direction. Lagrange seems to be improving enough that stints at the Double-A or even Triple-A level may not be too far off. It’s also a collection of stats that might interest the hobbled Yankees, who are currently bereft of decent starters at the major league level, thanks to uneven performances by Will Warren and Carlos Carrasco (not to mention, of course, injuries suffered by Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, and Marcus Stroman).
It’s probably too soon to start imagining Lagrange in pinstripes (MLB’s top prospects list currently estimates that his ETA is 2027), but the Yankees must be excited by news of a potential starter waiting in the wings.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Lagrange is an intimidating presence on the mound, where he stands at 6’7” and hurls fastballs in the triple digits. Signed for a mere $10,000 in 2022, he made a successful recovery from back inflammation last year prior to pitching in the Arizona Fall League.
According to an MLB scouting profile, his heaters were hitting the upper-90s back in 2022. His arsenal also includes an 82-85 mph slider and an upper-80s cutter. “He has the biggest gap between ceiling and floor of any Yankees pitching prospect, with the stuff to be a frontline starter or closer but the possibility that he never throws enough strikes to get to the big leagues,” says MLB’s profile.
In other words, the experts say that Lagrange will either be spectacular or unspectacular. Only time will tell. Until then, it might be a good idea to start watching more Renegades games.
