Yankees Reassigning Rookie Star is a Mistake

While Spring Training results are not the be-all end-all, Weathers allowed 16 earned runs in 12.1 innings pitched. The 17 strikeouts to 3 walks ratio was impressive, but given Lagrange's dominant nature in the short sample size he pitched in, if things were based on merit, it should have gone to the youngster. It's clear the Yankees went with Weathers because he's more seasoned at the big league level, whereas Lagrange has only 78.1 innings at AA.

A Tough Call

According to manager Aaron Boone, it was a tough call to reassign Lagrange to the minors. It wasn't a decision he thought he'd have to make.

“He made it a difficult decision,” Boone said, according to MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. “Coming into this, I wouldn’t have even thought there was a decision. He’s definitely got everyone’s attention. I love where he’s at. I would not be surprised if he is impacting us early, middle, later part of the season. “I can just tell you, we’re all very excited about his continued development and what we think he could mean to our team at some point.”

Early Call Ups

While Lagrange's development may have been in mind for the decision, it is important to note that, after last year, calling up a player with minimal minor league experience isn't as much of an outlier anymore.

For the Yankees themselves, Cam Schlittler burst onto the season with minimal experience at AAA. He pitched 85.1 innings at AA, then just had 25.1 at AAA. His introduction to the big leagues was more out of necessity, though, and he wasn't even an early call-up.

Another instance of a young player being called up with minimal experience by traditional standards, whom the Yankees are very familiar with, was Trey Yesavage. Yesavage, also not an early-season call-up, had only 98 minor league innings after being drafted in 2024.

Of those 98 IP, 17 were at AAA. Yesavage had 14 innings in the regular season, but he ended up being one of the league's best postseason pitchers and was a big part of the Blue Jays' nearly winning the World Series.

Of course, in the case of Lagrange, this could be another ugly instance of a team manipulating a player's service time. That could be something the Yankees have in mind with him, given a lockout looming and one of the few ways they can salvage losing a year of control. In past years, it felt like a slam dunk to bring up someone like Miguel Andujar after a great camp, but he came in later in the season when they had another year of control.

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