Carlos Lagrange + Brock Selvidge Show Out
- Chris Cooper
- Feb 21
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 24
Yankees bludgeoned the Tigers 20-3 in an absolute home run beat down, with numerous young prospects piling on to Aaron Judge’s two HR day. Spencer Jones started the bomb party with a 408 ft, 111 mph blast to the parking lot in right, proceeded by a Roderick Arias grand slam, a Tyler Hardman blast to left, and a Jackson Castillo solo shot late in the game.
But beyond the bats, there was much more for Yankee fans to get excited about in today’s showcase.
Carlos Lagrange: 2.2 IP | 3 H | 1 ER | 2 BB | 2 K’s
While the line itself isn’t all that impressive, the underlying numbers today looked beyond promising for Carlos.
Lagrange featured nearly four 110+ stuff+ pitches (the changeup registered at 109), with the fourseamer grading out as a 77 offering in today’s outing. While the swing/miss wasn’t there, we got to see everything you’d ideally envision in a great first of the season, Spring Training outing. Lagrange frequently started batters off with his gyro slider at the top of the zone, registering 7 called strikes on 14 pitches. It was easily the best pitch Lagrange had going for him today, both his sweeper and gyro slider worked well at getting strikes and keeping hitters fooled. His bread and butter changeup didn’t net the best results considering it was the pitch Corey Julks pulled to left for a solo shot, but the shape was excellent, he sat 91-92 on the pitch, and it got good chase and decent whiff.
As for the fourseamer, the pitch that Lagrange is most known for throwing due to his ability to sit comfortably above 100+ without overthrowing, there was a mixed bag. While the shape was as good as you can imagine and the velo was awesome, he was giving up some hard contact on the pitch, with a 0.354 xwOBAcon on the day, 4 of the 5 batted balls being hard hit. As seen below, I will be quick to point out that two of the base hits that came off the fourseamer were on hard thrown, edge of the zone pitches to guys who are known for their renown hit tools, including 2nd overall prospect Kevin McGonigle’s Baseball America graded 80 hit tool…in essence, two really good pieces of hitting and not so much of poor execution on Carlos’ part. Nevertheless, the fourseamer could have been commanded better on the day overall, as it only netted a 53% zone rate, but for a first of the season outing against a talent infused Tigers lineup, I’d consider today a major success.
Brock Selvidge: 2.0 IP | 0 H | 1 BB | 4 K’s
As exhilarating as Lagrange’s stuff was today, nothing made me happier than seeing Brock Selvidge turn back the clock and pump out 95-97 on his fourseamer, then put up 4 K’s in 2 innings for his first outing of the year. This is a pitcher with an extensive injury history, in a lengthy bicep-nerve issue that sidelined him for 2024 and a month or two of 2025. Upon return from injury this year, the stuff looked downplayed across his entire arsenal, his bread and butter breaking stuff wasn’t getting as much break and fooling as many batters, and the fastball looked like a shell of itself with poor ride and velo.
The whiff rates across the board were excellent, there was minimal hard contact, and the command was passable (though still shaky).
Brock finished today with a very well graded cutter and average (but much improved) fourseamer/slider combo. Sitting 95-97 right out the gate was beyond a promising sign that Brock can repair his stock this year and show out like the 2023 version that originally put him on the radar. I’d be dishonest if I said I wasn’t surprised at how good his arsenal looked today, but as someone who preaches to have patience with players coming back from long injuries, that being even if it takes a full season of full recovery, I see today as a potential enormous win for Yankee pitching development if these improvements stick beyond just today.
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