Acevedo hoping for hot start in the cold
Domingo Acevedo kicked off the Yankees’ minor league season Thursday, and the Dominican Republic native was surprisingly content being the first to get a start in early April.
“I like it cold. I sweat a lot. You don’t feel tired,” Acevedo said this week with a laugh.
Double-A Trenton won his debut, in which he went 5 ¹ /3 innings, on 80 pitches, and allowed two runs.
The 24-year-old Acevedo, the organization’s sixth-ranked prospect, according to MLB.com, said he was “honored” to get the Opening Day nod, and Chance Adams (No. 2) was set to get the ball for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Friday. Eight of the system’s 11 best prospects are pitchers, as the jockeying begins for the label as most major league-ready, should the Yankees get hit with an injury.
Acevedo is trying to make an early case, especially after his stint in major league camp in Tampa.
“To be out there was like, ‘Wow.’ I felt like I belonged there, in that position, with the people,” Acevedo, a 40-man roster member, said in Spanish. “I’d seen them before, but to actually spend so much time with them during practice and see how they work and behave is incredible.
“It’s very different from everything I’ve experienced and seen in baseball.”
The Yankees’ pitching riches makes his path tricky, for now at least.
“[Pitching is] one of the things that we as an organization have built upon,” said Trenton manager Jay Bell, who managed Single-A Tampa last year. “We continue to thrive in that area. We’ve thrived in that area the last several years. Last year because of the success we had in the organization, there’s no doubt the reason we had it was because of the pitching.”
Acevedo indicated he would have another innings limit this season, though the specifics are not clear. Last season, the 6-foot-7 right-hander, who buzzes triple digits with his fastball, was shut down after 133 innings, split between Tampa, Trenton and Scranton. He had thrown 93 innings in 2016.