NEW YORK — The Yankees farm system delivered two updates this week that pulled in opposite directions. One offered a flicker of hope. The other closed a door on a breakout year.
Both involve players fans have watched closely, for very different reasons. One is a flamethrowing arm the team hoped could help the bullpen down the stretch. The other is a slugger who spent the summer launching home runs at a record pace.
Lagrange picks up a baseball ahead of schedule
The bright spot is Carlos Lagrange, the Yankees’ No. 2 pitching prospect. The 23-year-old right-hander has resumed throwing as he works back from a shoulder injury, and he did it earlier than expected. On Tuesday he posted video of himself throwing, though manager Aaron Boone said he had actually started a handful of days ago.
The timing is what makes it notable. Lagrange last pitched at Triple-A on June 28, with the shoulder diagnosis following a few days later. An early return to a throwing program keeps a small door open for a possible late-season debut in the Bronx.
The 6-foot-7 flamethrower was in the middle of a transition when he went down. He opened the year in the RailRiders’ rotation, then moved to the bullpen in early June as part of a plan to prepare him for a relief role in the majors. The idea was to give the Yankees a power arm for the second half.
The numbers showed why the team was intrigued. Lagrange carried a 4.55 ERA over 18 Triple-A games this season, and the move to relief looked promising. He allowed just three earned runs across his first 13 2/3 innings out of the bullpen before giving up five on June 28, his final outing before the injured list.
Boone stops short of promises
Boone was careful not to overstate where things stand. Asked Tuesday, before the Yankees’ 3-2 win over the White Sox, whether Lagrange could become a factor at some point this season, the Yankees manager kept his answer measured.
“We’ll see,” Boone said. “He has started throwing again, so you never know for sure. But we’ll just listen to his arm and body and hopefully, as he starts his throwing progression, things go well and he puts himself in position to be in the conversation. But impossible to know right now.”
The subtext is the deadline. The Yankees are still expected to add a high-leverage reliever or two before Monday, and how aggressively they move could hint at how they view Lagrange’s timeline. A quiet deadline might signal faith in his return. A busy one might mean caution with the young arm.
There is also a trade dimension. If Lagrange is not included in a package to land bullpen help, his rehab becomes a storyline worth tracking as a potential wild card for the final weeks.
A record-setting power surge ends on the IL
The tougher news concerns Garrett Martin. The 26-year-old outfielder will miss the remainder of the 2026 season, the kind of blow that stings more because of how loud his year had been.
The move was made official through a routine roster note from the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. There was no fanfare, just a transaction line that ended a standout campaign.
The RailRiders relayed the news in a short social media post spelling out the roster change.
“The Yankees have made the following roster move affecting SWB: OF Garrett Martin has been transferred from the 60-Day Injured List to the Full Season Injured List,” the team wrote.
The transfer to the full-season list confirmed the year is over. That is the frustrating part for the Yankees, because Martin had turned into one of the more exciting stories in the system. He led all of the club’s minor leaguers in home runs, clearing more than 20 by mid-June.
His pace was historic at Double-A Somerset. Martin reached 21 home runs in the Patriots’ first 67 games, the most in that span in the franchise’s affiliated history, before earning a promotion to Triple-A in June. He homered in his first game at the higher level, carrying the same power stroke with him.
The loss lands at a thin spot. With Aaron Judge among the injured big leaguers and the outfield stretched, a surging power bat in the upper minors was exactly the kind of depth the Yankees wanted to have on hand. Now that option is shelved until next year.
For now, the picture is split. One young arm is throwing again with a faint path back to the Bronx this fall. One breakout bat is done for the season. The deadline will shape the rest, and the Yankees have days to decide how much of their future they are willing to spend on the present.
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