TORONTO -- It is appropriate that this year's SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game will be played at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. The Yankees' corner of the United States clubhouse will belong to the Justus Department.
Justus Sheffield, the Yankees' top pitching prospect and the No. 39 prospect in all of baseball, according to MLB Pipeline, will serve as the franchise's lone representative for the July 15 exhibition.
"It's just a great honor that the Yankees picked me to go to represent them," Sheffield told reporters in Moosic, Pa. "It definitely does show me that things are possible if you just keep working and pushing for it. So I'm just really excited and ready to get going with it."
The 22-year-old Sheffield appears to be moving closer to his big league debut. He is 3-5 with a 2.49 ERA in 15 games (14 starts) this season between Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, with 88 strikeouts and 36 walks over 79 2/3 innings.
Since being promoted to Triple-A, Sheffield is 2-3 with a 2.61 ERA in 10 games (nine starts), holding opponents to a .204 batting average.
"He's continued to pitch well, pitch better," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "He started off the year at Double-A and kind of worked on some things, worked on the things that [pitching coach] Larry [Rothschild] and our player development pitchers wanted him to work on.
"He had a successful run in Triple-A and is pitching well coming off a seven-inning start in his last one [on Monday at Buffalo]. He's, I think overall, had a very strong year for him and for us. He's obviously someone that we feel like is a very big part of our future."