Yankees Welcomes Sign All-Star To Fill In For Injured Ace Gerrit Cole…

The New York Yankees are looking to sign an All-Star to help out in the starting rotation. New York got some devastating news this past week as 2023 American League Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole will miss at least one or two months due to an elbow injury. The Yankees have been linked to a handful of hurlers to fill Cole’s spot in the rotation with two-time Cy Young Award Blake Snell being the most prominent name to be thrown around.

While this is the case, Snell certainly is an unlikely option due to the high cost. The Yankees have been looking to land another hurler, though, and one player who the team is pursuing is one-time All-Star Michael Lorenzen, according to USA Today Sports’ Bob Nightengale. “The Yankees have not re-engaged in talks for Snell, and instead have expressed interest in signing free-agent starter Michael Lorenzen,” Nightengale said. Lorenzen spent the 2023 season with the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies and had an impressive season. He was moved from the bullpen to the starting rotation in 2022 and earned his first All-Star appearance last season.

He began the season strong with the Tigers and had a 3.58 ERA in 18 starts before being traded to Philadelphia. Lorenzen had a 5.51 ERA in 11 total appearances but did pitch a no-hitter.

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Spencer Jones demolishes Spring Breakout home run as hot mic catches Yankees teammate

As one Yankees Spring Breakout teammate yelled on Spencer Jones’ way back to the dugout (it appeared to be Roc Riggio?), “That’s how you show up!”

Jones certainly did, relishing the top prospect showcase against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon and making an immediate impact after being demoted from big-league camp.

The Yankees made a powerful statement this offseason when they held strong and kept Jones in their farm, despite overtures from the Milwaukee Brewers (Corbin Burnes) and Chicago White Sox (Dylan Cease).

Jones? He countered with a pretty powerful statement in the second AB of Spring Breakout, too, punishing his second homer of camp. Ironically — and appropriately — he also mashed a dinger in his first appearance of the spring in late February, a 470-foot blast that might’ve been knocked out of the air by the homer he struck today.

Yankees top prospect Spencer Jones christens Spring Breakout with massive home run

Jones waited on a slow breaker from Adam Macko and detonated; he impacted this baseball at 106.5 miles per hour, giving skeptical observers a pretty clear lesson in why exit velocity can be important (and what, exactly, big league exit velo looks like).

While Jones gets high marks for showing up (and, if he cuts down the whiffs this summer, he’ll rise up top prospect lists nationally), there are plenty of other Yankees prospects in this game who fans should take note of. The Daily News’ Gary Phillips tried an exercise on Saturday where Yankees staffers had to praise prospects in this contest and couldn’t pick Jones; much like the game itself, this allowed noteworthy young players like Caleb Durbin and starting pitcher Brock Selvidge to get some shine.

Boone’s praise of the diminutive Durbin stood out: “He’s gonna have a big league career. He can really hit…Has some position flexibility. But I think he’s gonna be a player for a long time. I feel like he’s a winning player.”

Who knows? Perhaps he and Jones have a long future ahead of them of being posed together in humorous contrast.

And, oh, by the way, Yankees pitching prospect Brock Selvidge is also insane

It wouldn’t be a Spring Breakout writeup without acknowledging the Yankees’ starter, a former third-rounder who struck out eight men in four shutout frames, stranding a leadoff triple on third with a trio of strikeouts in his final inning of work. This setup did … not go well for the Blue Jays, and Selvidge enthusiastically let them know where they’d erred.

Selvidge’s nasty breaker (and Andy Pettitte tutelage) briefly threatened to be the headline story in the first frame, but Jones quickly stole the headlines right back — and fired up one teammate so spectacularly he had to grab the dugout mic and yell about it.

And no, it wasn’t Nick Swisher or Derek Dietrich, who both happen to be in attendance (and flexing about half as much as Jones).