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Justus Sheffield is ready to take his spot in the Yankees rotation

By Rucker Haringey

PORTLAND, ME - MAY 1: Portland Sea Dogs vs. the Trenton Thunder baseball game. Trenton starting pitcher Justus Sheffield pitched a strong game against the Sea Dogs. (Photo by John Ewing/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
PORTLAND, ME - MAY 1: Portland Sea Dogs vs. the Trenton Thunder baseball game. Trenton starting pitcher Justus Sheffield pitched a strong game against the Sea Dogs. (Photo by John Ewing/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images) /
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The Yankees have understandably been cautious with Justus Sheffield this season, but he’s now ready to come up and make a big impact.

Jonathan Loaisiga’s demotion back down to the minors opens up a spot in Aaron Boone’s rotation. Justus Sheffield should be the next Yankees prospect to get a chance to make his mark at the big league level.

Brian Cashman and the rest of the front office have done their best to protect the talented left-hander. Many fans expect him to get the call over Loaisiga to fill Masahiro Tanaka’s spot in the rotation once the Japanese hurler was put on the DL. Instead, the Yankees elected to leave him in the minors to continue to hone his craft.

It’s pretty clear Sheffield has taken advantage of his extended stay in AAA. He’s been electric in his last five starts with an ERA of just 1.78 in 30 1/3 innings pitched. Last night might have been his best start as a professional. Sheffield went a season high seven innings in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s 6-2 win over Buffalo.

His final numbers don’t tell the full story though. More important than the outs Sheffield got, were the way he got the outs. He was able to strike out six hitters and solicit eight groundouts. Clearly his stuff is in a great position to translate positively to success at the major league level.

The aforementioned demotion of Loaisiga creates a good opportunity to get Sheffield some work. Even if Tanaka, as expected, comes back healthy after the All-Star Break, there’s still a quality opportunity for Sheffield to get innings as a fifth starter. Domingo German has not done enough to lock that job up as his own.

At 22 years of age, it’s time for the Yankees to find out just what they have in Sheffield. There isn’t much left to learn about him in AAA. The organization knows he can be an All-Star caliber hurler in the minor leagues.

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Now they need to bite the bullet and bring him to the Bronx for a legitimate audition. It doesn’t have to be a permanent move, but the club need to give Sheffield an honest chance to grab one of the five spots in the Yankees rotation. He’s earned that right.

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