Pitcher Swanson promoted to Triple-A
TRENTON » Erik Swanson’s scintillating start to the season has been rewarded with a promotion.
Swanson mowed down Double-A batters for the better part of a month and a half and his next start will come on Monday for Triple-A Scranton against Pawtucket.
The 24-year-old righthander went 5-0 with an Eastern League-best 0.44 ERA over 40.2 innings for the Thunder. He struck out 52 against 12 walks and limited opponents to a .154 average.
He was originally lined up to pitch Sunday’s series finale for the Thunder, but was replaced by Michael King, who took the mound wearing Swanson’s No. 35 jersey.
“He did some marvelous things here,” Thunder manager Jay Bell said. “He doesn’t need to change a thing. He needs to keep on going after the hitters and attacking the lineup. I’m thrilled for him.”
Swanson was acquired in August 2016 as part of the deal that sent Carlos Beltran to the Rangers.
He pitched well for High-A Tampa in his first full year in the Yankees system by going 7-3 with a 3.95 ERA in 20 starts.
That convinced the organization that he was ready to begin this season in Double-A where he’s been the best pitcher in the EL.
The Thunder began the year with three pitchers rated as top 12 prospects in organization — none of whom were Swanson.
“I’m just going out every week and doing what I got to do,” Swanson said after he fanned a careerhigh 11 in a late April start against Harrisburg. “It is nice to be able to have those guys, not just their stature within the organization, but they’re good guys to talk to.
“If I have questions, I can ask them certain things and they can come to me about certain things. It’s good to have that competitiveness from your starting rotation because you’re learning a lot from each other and that’s kind of how it is on this team.”
Swanson worked on developing a third pitch to make him an effective starting pitcher.
In this case, his curve ball.
“It was very inconsistent and didn’t have that sharp beak,” he said. “I spent a lot of time working on it, and looking back, it’s kind of a blessing in disguise because I ended up learning how to throw a really good change-up and salvaged a pretty good year off of two pitches.
“If you can’t throw three pitches for strikes, you’re going to struggle quite a bit. Coming out of the (bullpen), you can work with two, but right now my goal is to make it to the big leagues as a starter and to do that I got to be able to throw three pitches for strikes.”