They say patience is a virtue, but the Yankees have taken the concept entirely too far with top prospect Justus Sheffield.
Justus Sheffield is exactly the sort of talented pitcher who could help the Yankees in the playoffs this season. Unfortunately, the organization didn’t choose to bring the talented southpaw to the Bronx early enough to make that happen. At least Yankees fans will get a glimpse of the team’s top prospect in 2018.
That’s because Brian Cashman and company have finally made the move to call Sheffield up to the Majors. In truth, the club didn’t have much choice. Sheffield was plying his trade for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the International League’s Governor Cup Finals. Unfortunately, the team fell to the Durham Bulls last night and now their season is over.
As such, the Yankees had to call Sheffield up unless they wanted his season to be over. While the organization is being hyper sensitive about his workload this year, he still has quality innings left in his arm for the season. Expect to see him get a few appearances out of the bullpen for Aaron Boone’s team down the stretch.
Do not, however, expect the team to deploy Sheffield in many high leverage situations. He’s got that kind of stuff, but there are still significant concerns about his command. That’s the real reason he hasn’t been called up until now. Sheffield has been a very effective pitcher this year in the minors, but his pitch counts have been too high for the organization’s liking.
That doesn’t mean his cameo in the Bronx isn’t going to be important for Sheffield’s future. The way he throws the ball in his major league innings will go a long way towards determining where he fits into the team’s 2019 plans. Ideally, he’d like to compete for a spot in the team’s rotation coming out of Spring Training. That might be an ambitious goal, but it’s well within the reach of the team’s top prospect.
The more likely outcome is that Sheffield can flash enough ability to put himself in position for a call-up sometime in the middle of the 2019 campaign. That would allow the organization to limit his innings but still get significant value out of their prized asset. The chances of the team rushing Sheffield into action next season are pretty small.
As it stands, Yankees fans should enjoy watching Sheffield pitch this month. He represents the team’s best hope of improving their rotation next season. His brief cameo has big implications for the Yankees’ immediate future.