TAMPA, Fla. -- Carlos Lagrange’s triple-digit heat is building a growing fan club around Yankees camp this spring, a group that now includes former Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole.
“It’s like, silly. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Cole said. “It’s wild. I’m just blown away by the velocity every time.”
Cole and Lagrange -- the Yankees’ top-ranked pitching prospect according to MLB Pipeline -- traded innings of live batting practice on the George M. Steinbrenner Field mound Friday afternoon, with Cole tossing two and Lagrange going three.
The 22-year-old Lagrange grinned broadly when informed of Cole’s comments.
“If he thinks that about me,” Lagrange said, “it’s really good.”
While Cole has impressed in his rehab from Tommy John surgery, touching 97 mph and showcasing command that has been sharper than expected, Lagrange is simply overpowering hitters.
Lagrange exceeded 100 mph several times Friday against the Twins, including an up-and-in heater that spilled Zack Short to the dirt, followed by a low-and-away sweeper for a strikeout – an intentional setup, Lagrange said.
“He’s young. OK, I get that,” Cole said. “It’s his first big league camp. I get that. [Manager Aaron] Boone is there and the big guys are in the box. I know he’s been going for a while and he’s in good shape. All these things add up to supporting it, and OK, I can see how this guy throws really hard.
“All these factors are contributing to him still throwing hard, but it’s amazing. It doesn’t look like he’s trying. It looks relatively easy, for the amount of freaking 101s I’ve seen in a row. I’ve hit 101 in my career probably less than 10 times, and I’ve seen him do it every single time. And a lot of times, nobody’s here.”
As he spoke in the first-base dugout, Cole gestured toward the empty field. The grandstands had been mostly vacant for their sessions, with maybe about 50 people in the seating area as witnesses, including a tour group.
“It’s not, ‘Runners on second and third with two outs,’” Cole said. “It’s not, ‘You’ve got to get out of it or the coach is going to come get you.’ It’s just, 'Oh, 101.' It’s crazy.”
Friday marked Jasson Domínguez’s first opportunity to stand in against Lagrange. He said the at-bats were exactly as advertised: “Nasty.”
“I’ll tell you -- I’d never faced him, but I wasn’t expecting that,” Domínguez said. “I knew he throws hard, but the way his pitches move, his mechanics ... He’s also got a slide-step that he’s doing. It’s really good.
“I got frozen with a sweeper, back-door. It’s tough to pull the trigger. Then it’s 102 [mph] -- it’s disgusting.”
Boone has compared Lagrange to a young Dellin Betances, a reference Domínguez also made on Friday.
Based on what he saw Friday, Domínguez believes Lagrange could be a difference-maker at the big league level this season.
“I think he can be a great pitcher for us,” Domínguez said. “He definitely can help the team. He’s still young, but I think he’s got great stuff.”
Lagrange said he vividly remembers the first time he cracked 100 mph -- at age 20 in the chain-link fields of the Florida Complex League.
The surge of adrenaline was accompanied by a rush of confidence.
“You’ve worked so hard for something, and then you see the results right there -- it’s so good,” Lagrange said.
Now, as Cole observed, pumping triple-digit heaters almost seems routine for Lagrange. Not so, the hurler says.
“I get it; it might look easy,” Lagrange said. “But the reality is, it’s not easy. You need consistency with your mechanics, with your aggressiveness, with your mind, too.”
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has said this camp would serve as “an Ivy League education” for Lagrange and right-hander Elmer Rodríguez, who is currently pitching for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic.
So far, Lagrange said, it has lived up to that billing.
“I’ve chatted with Gerrit about pitches and execution,” Lagrange said. “I’ve chatted with Max Fried about building pitches, doing [pitcher field practice], how to be really good at it. And I’ve chatted with [Ryan] Weathers, too, about his changeup, how to execute it and how to be consistent.”
If those lessons stick, Lagrange might be bringing this show to the Bronx sooner than initially projected.
“I think he’s going to be big-time for us,” Domínguez said. “From what I’ve seen, he definitely can make it happen this year.”