Sheffield takes big step forward in year with Thunder
ALTOONA, PA. » Bobby Mitchell has a pretty good feel for what it takes to get to the major leagues.
The Thunder manager correctly predicted Jonathan Holder would make it to the Bronx last season and Jordan Montgomery would get there sooner rather when both were still in Double-A.
Justus Sheffield, at some point, will be next.
But just how soon? “Next year would be a perfect year for him to just spend in Triple-A the whole year,” Mitchell said prior to Game 3 of the ELCS on Thursday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field. “I would expect him to be there all year because he’s so young. Sometimes you run them too fast and they get hit around a little bit and when they go back their confidence level isn’t where you want it.
“You got to be careful with that, but he’s probably a year away from the big leagues. He’s on his way, for sure.” Sheffield, a 21-year-old southpaw who came over last July in the trade that sent Andrew Miller to Cleveland, is ranked as the Yankees’ No. 5 prospect by MLB Pipeline.
He went 7-6 with a 3.18 ERA and 1.36 WHIP in 17 starts, but was stalled by an oblique injury in July that sent him to the disabled list until the final week of the season.
Sheffield returned to make three starts — two in the playoffs — but was on a 65-pitch limit, something he admitted was frustrating.
“Those pitch count things coming back from that injury kind of stinks, but I just had a little bit of bad luck at the end,” Sheffield said. “Overall for the year, I’ll take it as a good year and move forward with it.”
The Yankees selected Sheffield for the Arizona Fall League where he’ll play for the Scottsdale Scorpions.
Mitchell suspects they want him to log a few more innings (he threw 98 this summer compared to 125.1 last year) and work on his secondary pitches.
“The last two outings I thought were two of his best outings and he was feeling strong and good about how he’s throwing,” Mitchell said. “I think he needs to still refine his stuff, his command. He’s thrown some good sliders, but he’s not as consistent as he needs to be with his slider and change up. That’s huge for him during the winter and instructional league to work on that.”