Yankees’ Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz earns minor league honor for standout season
Carlos Narváez has turned in a fine season with the Red Sox, perhaps to the point that he will receive some downballot AL Rookie of the Year votes.
In the meantime, the season turned in by the pitcher the Yankees got back for him in an offseason trade went down as one of the best by anyone in the organization.
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Baseball America named Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz the Yankees Minor League Player of the Year on Monday, after the 22-year-old right-hander finished off a strong season in which he combined to post a 2.58 ERA with 176 strikeouts in 150 innings between High-A, Double-A and Triple-A.
Rodriguez-Cruz’s strikeouts trailed only Mets rookie Jonah Tong (179) for the most in the minor leagues this season.
“That’s one of the reasons we went after him — we just thought there was a lot of upside,” director of pitching Sam Briend said earlier this season. “He’s a really aggressive strike thrower, throws really hard. He averaged 95-plus miles an hour. We really thought the secondary pitches were the pieces we could impact.”
Rodriguez-Cruz, who recently joined Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects list, may be the most advanced among the next wave of Yankee pitching prospects.
He could start next season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he was promoted for his final start of the regular season on Saturday after Double-A Somerset’s playoff run ended.
With Sunday’s win over the Orioles, the Yankees improved to 6-8 in extra-inning games this season after starting the year 3-8. Each of their last three extra-inning wins have come on the road.
The Yankees finished the regular season 44-37 on the road.
Sunday was not Ben Rice’s first big, go-ahead home run at Camden Yards.
He had one last summer in the final game before the All-Star break, a three-run shot in the top of the ninth that put the Yankees up 5-3, only for Clay Holmes to blow it in the bottom of the inning.
While Sunday will be remembered for Rice’s heroics, that game last summer is better known as the one that ended with Alex Verdugo sprawled out on the left field grass after slipping trying to go back to catch the winning hit.
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