Yankees minor-league flamethrower Carlos Lagrange learning to harness command

BRIDGEWATER Carlos Lagranges first few weeks in Double-A have illustrated a dichotomy.The 22-year-old right-hander possesses perhaps the most electric arsenal in the Yankees system, but his command is a work in progress.Lagrange walked seven batters Wednesday night in Somersets 9-3 loss to Erie at TD Bank Ballpark.

He has issued at least five free passes twice in four Double-A starts after not doing so once in his first eight starts of the season at High-A Hudson Valley.Sometimes I just want to do a bit too much, a bit more than youre supposed to, Lagrange said postgame through a translator.

It all comes back to ...

learning from the previous outings, writing down the stuff that I can be better in, and then executing those.At 6-foot-7, 195 pounds, Lagrange wields a fastball that typically sits between 97-100 mph and reached 102 on Wednesday night.

But ultimately that wont mean anything without better control, as his ERA through four starts in Somerset sits at 6.05.He also throws a gyro slider, a sweeper and a changeup.

Those secondary offerings have yet to emerge as consistent plus pitches.I feel like my secondary pitches are good.

Its just a matter of keep learning from the good things and keep executing, Lagrange said.

When I feel like Im in a good place, I execute, and my secondary pitches are really good.Lagrange has had two solid starts and two shaky ones in Double-A.He allowed three runs on four hits and one walk with six strikeouts across six innings June 6 in his debut.

Then he yielded five runs on seven hits and five walks with only two strikeouts in four innings during his next start.Lagrange then had a career-high 12 strikeouts in 5.1 innings on June 19 against New Hampshire, allowing only one run on three hits and two walks.

But he followed that up with Wednesdays poor outing featuring a season-low 54 percent strike rate (49 of 90 pitches were strikes).Keep working on my mechanics, Lagrange said.

Whenever my mechanics are in a good place, my stuff is there, command is there.

Regardless of if they hit the ball or not, thats not important.

What is important is to keep the ball in the strike zone and control what I can control.On a positive note, Lagrange has cleaned up issues with holding base runners.

In his second Double-A start against Portland, runners stole 11 bases without being caught.

He has allowed only one stolen base in his last two starts, which he attributes to speeding his delivery by adding a slide step after that outing.He also feels he has made progress overall in repeating his delivery.

He has 88 strikeouts in 61 innings this season between the two levels.I work a lot on my mechanics ever since I got to the New York Yankees, Lagrange said.

I always had the power and the arm.

Ive worked a long ways with my stuff, too secondary pitches.

But I work really hard on my mechanics.Lagrange, who signed with the Yankees for $10,000 out of the Dominican Republic in 2022, is rated by MLB Pipeline as the organizations No.

17 prospect.The first thing that I appreciate is that Im healthy, Lagrange said.

Obviously theres bad outings, but the way I approach it is taking the best things out of it, learning from it and then forgetting about the bad stuff..

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