Deivi García was once a top pitching prospect in the Yankees' organization. Then he fell on hard times -- after making his MLB debut with New York at age 21 in 2020, he went on to post ERAs near 7.00 in each of the past two seasons between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

But the young right-hander came into Spring Training this year with a renewed focus, a more aggressive approach and a fine-tuned cutter. The result was a 1.74 ERA over five Grapefruit League outings (10 1/3 innings). Then, in his regular-season debut with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Saturday, he looked great, striking out four and walking none while yielding two hits over 2 2/3 relief innings against Buffalo.

A rejuvenated García, who has also shown a significant uptick in velocity, could be a big boost for the Yankees. New York’s pitching depth has been thinned early, particularly in the starting rotation, with newly acquired star left-hander Carlos Rodón, as well as righties Frankie Montas and Luis Severino, opening the season on the injured list.