The New York Yankees are calling up their top pitching prospect once again.
Shortly after their 10-2 defeat to the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced that young starting pitcher Elmer Rodriguez will be called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Rodriguez, 22, will start the rubber game of the series on Father's Day tomorrow.
Boone explained that Rodriguez was re-inserted into the starting rotation not for any injury-related reasons, but to simply give the other starters some extra rest. The Yankees are currently in the beginning of a 16-game stretch without an off day, spanning from June 16 to July 1. Gerrit Cole, who was originally scheduled to start on Sunday, will instead start on Monday in the Yankees' series opener against the Detroit Tigers.
Rodriguez is currently the Yankees' No. 2 prospect (behind only shortstop George Lombard Jr.) and ranks as the No. 59 prospect in all of baseball on MLB Pipeline's Top 100 list. He's made three starts earlier this season, with a 4.15 ERA and 4.94 FIP in 13 innings pitched. Although Rodriguez's command was considered to be one of his strengths as a prospect, he's struggled with it at the big league level by issuing nine walks as opposed to six strikeouts.
The right-hander's previous start with the Bronx Bombers came on May 17 against the New York Mets. He pitched 4.1 innings, allowing one run on five hits and a walk while striking out one batter. With the RailRiders this year, Rodriguez has a 3.00 ERA and 4.09 FIP in 10 starts and 51.0 innings; he was originally slated to start for them today against the Columbus Clippers before the Yankees called him up.
As a corresponding move, the Yankees optioned struggling reliever Jake Bird to Triple-A. Bird has a 5.09 ERA in 28 appearances and 23.0 innings pitched this year.
