Fastest pitch during Triple-A opening weekend? Yankees' Lagrange at 101.3!
This browser does not support the video element.
One of the Yankees' toughest decisions this spring was to send down Carlos Lagrange, their top pitching prospect. The 6-foot-7, 248-pound flame-thrower turned heads with a performance that exceeded lofty expectations in his first big league camp.
The 22-year-old lit up radar guns across his five Grapefruit League appearances, consistently flashing triple digits while accounting for the two fastest pitches recorded at Spring Training -- 103.1 mph and 102.8 mph -- during a hitless outing on March 11 against the Blue Jays.
Lagrange picked up right where he left off in his Triple-A and season debut for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Sunday as the RailRiders topped the Blue Jays affiliate, 5-4, at Sahlen Field.
MLB's No. 76 overall prospect recorded the fastest thrown pitch during MiLB's opening weekend with a 101.3 mph fastball to Yohendrick Pinango (TOR No. 10) in the bottom of the first inning.
This browser does not support the video element.
Lagrange fanned Pinango to end the inning in another dominant performance -- retiring the first five batters he faced en route to allowing a run on four hits over four frames. The native of the Dominican Republic threw 39 of his 68 pitches for strikes, fanning three without issuing a walk.
Lagrange posted a 0.66 ERA with 13 strikeouts while yielding just six hits over 13 2/3 innings in the Grapefruit League this spring. His effort led to him earning the 2026 James P. Dawson Award, given annually to the most outstanding Yankees rookie in Spring Training.
The right-hander posted an 11-8 mark with a 3.53 ERA and 168 punchouts in 120 innings (24 games/23 starts) between High-A Hudson Valley and Double-A Somerset last season. Lagrange ranked first in average-against (.191), second in strikeouts and tied for fifth in WHIP (1.20) among all Yankees Minor Leaguers.