Yankees' Carlos Lagrange Decision Shows Promotion Will Come Soon

The New York Yankees obviously have a bullpen problem, and until it's fixed, there are going to be questions about why the organization isn't calling up top prospect Carlos Lagrange. 

Lagrange, a tall right-hander who throws a fastball in the low 100s, seems more than ready to come up to the Yankees and make an impact on this organization. The only question the Yankees now have to answer is whether they're going to give him an opportunity to play this season or continue to see what he has in Triple-A.

If there's any promising sign, it's the fact that the Yankees are now going to transition him to a bullpen role in Triple-A. 

Instead of worrying about what that's going to look like in the short and long term for the young right-hander, the Yankees appear more than willing to at least give him a look in the bullpen for the future. 

Right now, he's transitioning into a bullpen role, and Aaron Boone recently spoke about what that could mean for his chances of making the big-league roster this season.

“We definitely view him long term as a starter,” manager Aaron Boone said on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium, per MLB.com. “But in the 2026 lens, there’s a chance for him to potentially impact us out of the bullpen while not really disrupting anything moving forward… It’s electric stuff. The exciting thing for me was, really being around him for the first time, seeing the person and the competitor. How he works. You love to see a young guy go out there and perform and do well and relish the competition.

“You’re talking about several weeks of de-loading and then building in the [appearances] every other day,” Boone said. “So that takes a while, but we’ll see.”

I hate that the Yankees have to load him up a bit, but it's the right decision. At the end of the day, going from a starter to a reliever is no easy task, even if the youngster has some of the best stuff in the Triple-A space.