Yankees Announce Decision on Top-2 Pitching Prospect Before Twins Game

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The Yankees announced a decision involving top pitching prospect Carlos Lagrange before their game against the Minnesota Twins.

The New York Yankees have already clinched a playoff spot with an 8-3 win over the Minnesota Twins on Monday.

Now, their magic number to clinch the top American League wild-card berth stands at six, meaning any combination of six Yankees wins and Boston Red Sox losses over the season’s final 11 games gets the job done for New York. They could shave at least one of that total by winning their series finale against the Twins Wednesday.

Before the Twins game, the Yankees made an announcement about one of their most hotly anticipated pitching prospects.

Carlos Lagrange is throwing again, and this time the Yankees made it official. New York activated its No. 4-ranked prospect — and No. 2-ranked pitching prospect behind only Elmer Rodríguez — from the Triple-A injured list Wednesday, ending a 10-week absence that once put the rest of his season in doubt.

The move closes out a rehab stretch that opened with a diagnosis serious enough to shelve any thought of a September call-up, and it leaves open the same question that has trailed Lagrange since spring: how much of that upper-90s fastball comes back with him.

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders confirmed the roster move Wednesday, pairing Lagrange’s activation with a development-list assignment for right-hander Carson Coleman. Lagrange isn’t expected to reach the Bronx this year. The priority is stacking innings before the minor league season closes, according to CBS Sports.

Carlos Lagrange Injury and Long Road Back

Lagrange hadn’t pitched since June 28, when he allowed five earned runs in two-thirds of an inning, a disastrous 20-pitch outing that still saw him touch 100.9 mph with his fastball. Four days later, the shoulder kicked in.

New York placed him on the seven-day injured list July 2. An MRI later revealed a capsular sprain in the throwing shoulder, and the club shut him down from throwing for a duration that pushed his return into late August at the earliest, according to an MLB Trade Rumors report.

“Nothing alarming,” RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan said of the shutdown, framing it as a protective move for a valuable arm, according to a Pinstripe Alley report.

The injury hit while the Yankees were converting Lagrange from starter to reliever, a short-term move designed to fast-track him to the bullpen ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline. New York was deliberate and methodical with the switch, manager Aaron Boone said, though he couldn’t say whether the new workload triggered the sprain.

Lagrange began playing catch around July 28, ahead of schedule, then faced live hitters Sept. 4, Fox Sports noted, before rejoining Scranton. It’s his second documented injured-list stint. Back inflammation shelved him for most of 2024, and he closed that year in the Arizona Fall League, where his walk rate spiked.

Lagrange’s Path From Unheralded Signing to Top Prospect

The 6-foot-7, 248-pound right-hander is still ranked as New York’s No. 4 prospect by MLB Pipeline, with an arsenal built around a four-seamer that sits 97-99 mph and has reached 103, backed by a sweeping slider, a cutter and a changeup. Baseball Savant grades the fastball a 70, the slider a 60, with control the lone below-average tool.

Evaluators have floated Dellin Betances as a size-and-velocity comp, and he struck out Aaron Judge on three pitches during spring camp, the last one a 102.6 mph fastball that left Judge helpless.

Lagrange didn’t play organized baseball until 14 and signed with New York for a $10,000 bonus out of the Dominican Republic in February 2022, according to Diario Libre, the lowest possible amount to count against a team’s international signing bonus pool.

A breakout 2025 season, with 168 strikeouts in 120 innings between High-A and Double-A, vaulted him onto national top-100 lists and into the Yankees’ top five practically overnight. He later sold a small slice of his future big-league earnings through Finlete, raising roughly $169,000 for family support and training. The shoulder and the strike zone will determine how fast the now-hot prospect reaches the Bronx.