Yankees Must Be Patient With Carlos Lagrange's Bullpen Outlook Despite Early Concerns

Carlos Lagrange has run into some struggles since being sent to the bullpen, but his outlook with the Yankees still looks bright.

Carlos Lagrange's move to the bullpen hasn't gone smoothly, but it's still too early to wave the white flag for the Yankees' top prospect. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Carlos Lagrange has been looked at as an answer to the Yankees' bullpen since pitchers and catchers first reported, and the young flame-thrower, who has yet to make his MLB debut, blew a 102 mph fastball right by Aaron Judge. His big league call-up felt inevitable this year, and that especially became the case when he was converted to the bullpen.

Since going to the bullpen, there have been some issues, though. For one, Lagrange has been snakebit by the long ball.

In his first four outings as a reliever since June 3, the Yankees' No. 1 prospect has allowed eight hits, seven runs, three earned runs, two homers, and five walks. That last one was especially tough, as he yielded four runs, two walks and a homer over 1 2/3 innings in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's 6-5 win over Lehigh Valley on Thursday.

Carlos Lagrange hasn’t looked that sharp in relief in recent appearances, but some growing pains were expected.

Today: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 HR

— Yankeesource (@YankeeSource) June 18, 2026

As uninspiring as things are at the moment, the upside is that Lagrange does have 15 strikeouts since entering a relief role. The strikeouts come with an electric fastball that can hit triple digits, which the Yankees were hoping he'd bring to the big club. Camilo Doval is the only one in the Yankee pen who can bring the level of heat that Lagrange can.

The issue is that New York can't trust Doval. Who knows how long his rope is, so even with Lagrange's struggles in Triple-A, he may be on an island on his own as far as stuff goes by the time he is called up. Doval may not be long for the Yankees' roster if he keeps serving up grand slams.

The closest comp to Lagrange

Those struggles in the minors might make the Yankees raise an eyebrow about whether Lagrange is ready to be called up, but it's not the first time they've dealt with a situation like this. All the way back in 2007, Joba Chamberlain was the young upstart in the organization, and a few weeks before he was called up, he had a rocky outing.

Against the Twins' Double-A team in 2007, Chamberlain allowed seven earned runs on three homers in 4 2/3innings. Just like Lagrange, the strikeout stuff was still there even with the struggles, and he ended up striking out seven during that start.

Joba Chamberlain's story shows that Yankees fans must remain patient with Carlos Lagrange's development. | Tom Szczerbowski-Imagn Images

Lagrange will have to do what Chamberlain did and correct course from there. Chamberlain had four more outings following that implosion. In nine innings, he didn't allow a single run, he walked just one, and struck out 20. Everybody knows what happened next. He came up to the big leagues, and the story of his rookie year as Mariano Rivera's setup man has been cemented in Yankee lore.

It's hard to be better than 2007 Chamberlain. Lagrange probably won't have any "Lagrange rules" hoodies after one month of being in the big leagues—mostly because Modells doesn't exist—but he has all the stuff to be a nasty reliever in the big leagues.

For now, though, he'll have to start small. Lagrange needs to start dominating in the minors, or at least show a modicum of improvement from where he has been.