Carlos Lagrange Nearly MLB Ready
- Jared Goldstein
- Jun 3
- 3 min read
On February 3rd, 2022, the Yankees signed towering 6’7”, 18 year old flamethrower Carlos Lagrange for a $10,000 signing bonus out of the Dominican Republic. That same year, he showed his potential almost immediately by posting a staggering .093 BAA and a 33.1 K% at the age of 19 years old. He has climbed high and very fast within the Yankees’ top 30 prospects in the organization. In 2025, he was the organization’s 19th ranked prospect and has jumped up to 4th this year and is now the 75th ranked prospect in all of baseball. In almost every year he’s been in the minor leagues, he’s climbed a level, and it’s not surprising because the stuff keeps getting better, especially around his fastball. Almost all of his pitches rank as some of the best pitches according to Stuff+ in all of minor league baseball.
His changeup, which has been the talk of his arsenal this year along with his otherworldly fastball, is probably the best changeup in all of minor league baseball. It sits at 112 Stuff+ with 14.9 inches of horizontal break, has produced a 37.0 whiff%, and a .199 xwOBA. This changeup got completely revolutionized from last year to this year, going from one of his worst pitches to one of his best in the span of an offseason, completely retooling his already disgusting pitch arsenal.
To go along with the changeup is a nasty sweeper with -10.7 inches of horizontal break and 5.7 inches of vertical break. It grades out at a 112 Stuff+ and induces a 41.4 whiff%. Developing this frisbee of a pitch in 2025 helped his K% jump from 27.0 to 33.4, and he’s only getting better from here.
His large 6’7” frame gives him great length on the mound, making 100 MPH feel like 102, and also gives great deception on his pitches, which keeps hitters off balance because they don’t know if a 103 MPH fastball is coming or a nasty sweeper.
With reports that he’s moving to the bullpen in AAA to gear up to make a huge impact on the 2026 Yankees squad, that could help fix his biggest problem, which is controlling the strike zone. BB% has been one of his biggest struggles, but moving him into a role where he pitches 1-2 max innings per appearance could help take pressure off him trying to force pitches into the zone as a starter and instead help him attack the zone much more aggressively. His BB% has always hovered around 10-15%, with him posting a career low 11.5% this year. Shifting his focus from being a starting pitcher and trying to go deep into every start to coming in and shutting down a lineup for an inning or two could unleash a demon.
When Lagrange is in the zone, he’s practically unhittable, posting 76th percentile or better in: wOBA, xwOBA, K%, Whiff%, CSW%, Z-Contact%, average fastball velocity, Stuff+, and SwStr%.
Carlos Lagrange has little left to prove in the minor leagues and has been nearly MLB-ready practically all year, and he proved it during spring training in 2026. Before a rough last start, he was carrying a 0.66 ERA through 4 appearances and 13.2 innings of work, striking out 13 batters in the process while only walking 4. In his MiLB career, he’s struck out 364 batters in a total of 264.2 IP and has held batters to a .189 BAA throughout 5 years. Gerrit Cole had high praise for the young prospect: “It’s like, silly. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s wild. I’m just blown away by the velocity every time.”
Now, with the Yankees preparing to unleash him in the Bronx, the only question left is when, not if, Carlos Lagrange arrives. And when that bullpen door finally swings open, the rest of baseball may quickly realize the Yankees didn’t just develop another arm they may have created their next nightmare at the back end of games.
Every Prospect. Every Level. Every Day.
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