Boone envisions Loaisiga, out since early May,
Jonathan Loaisiga hasn’t thrown a big league pitch since May 8 against Seattle. He’s back with the Yankees after rehabbing his shoulder injury. “I’m here to contribute,” said Loaisiga. “I’m here to help any way possible.”
Though Loaisiga worked as a starter earlier this year, Aaron Boone envisioned him working out of the bullpen, at least for now. “He’s not built up like a starter right now,” said the Yankee manager, who was instead looking to the future. “He can definitely give us multiple innings … He’s
throwing the ball well, he’s healthy and strong.”
The Yankees have plenty riding on his potential. Before Deivi Garcia’s dominant run, Loaisig a was widely considered among talent evaluators to be the Yankees’ best pitching prospect.
Boone believes “his ceiling is very high,” citing his “electric fastball” and feel for all three pitches. His biggest developmental hurdle remains his in-game command of his pitches, an approach Boone described as “too fine” at times. Still, said Boone, “we feel he has a chance to give us meaningful outings out of the bullpen because his stuff is so electric.”
GERMAN RECESSION
Domingo German was effective in his last outing against the Blue Jays, as the young starter has been all season. But, his velocity was noticeably down last game. German didn’t throw a single fastball over 93.8 mph last Thursday against the Blue Jays, according to CBS Sports’ Mike Axisa in his newsletter. He also pointed out that German’s heater had a higher average velocity in eight separate starts this year.
Boone says he’s not worried about fatigue. “Any time for a starting pitcher, that can tend to fluctuate a little bit,” said Boone, especially as he recently crossed the 100-inning mark. “If it starts to become a trend where it happening a couple or few starts in a row, when that stuff’s down then you start to dive into that.” It has.
German’s average fastball and curveball velocity has gone down his last four starts, stretching back to his outing against the Twins.
“Physically he’s good and sound, but it’s obviously something we’ll continue to watch.”
CC BACK
Expect CC Sabathia (knee) to rejoin the Yankees staff “sometime in the Cleveland series” according to Boone.