The Yankees have announced which minor leaguer will temporarily take Masahiro Tanaka’s place in the starting rotation.
According to manager Aaron Boone, right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga will start and make his major league debut on Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium.
Tanaka was placed on the 10-day disabled list last Saturday with strains to both his hamstrings, and Boone expects the 29-year-old to be sidelined for a few weeks.
Loaisiga, a 23-year-old Nicaraguan native who is the Yankees’ No. 12 prospect, is 3-1 with a 4.32 ERA in six starts with Double-A Trenton this season. Prior to his Double-A callup in early May, he started four games with High-A Tampa in April (3-0, 1.35 ERA). Overall, Loaisiga has completed 45 innings, and though he’s allowed 47 hits and 15 runs, he’s also struck out 58.
According to Kyle Franko of The Trentonian, Loaisiga nearly started for the Yankees last Monday when the team played a doubleheader against the Tigers in Detroit. But since the Yankees were rained out the day before in Baltimore, Loaisiga wasn’t needed.
“[Loaisiga’s] really talented,” Boone told NJ.com. “We think he has a very bright future. His stuff is really good. He’s a guy that pounds the strike zone. For being a young guy that’s only still at Double-A, with him being on the roster, we feel like he’ll come up here and just getting to know him a little bit this spring, we don’t feel like he’ll be overwhelmed by pitching here at Yankee Stadium in the big leagues.
“We feel like his repertoire, his stuff will allow him to have a chance to be successful for us. We don’t necessarily expect him to go real deep into the game, but we feel like he’ll give us a real opportunity to give us a quality start.”
Loaisiga is on the Yankees’ 40-man roster, which means the team wouldn’t have to designate any player for assignment to make room for him. It’s unknown if Loaisiga will see more than one major league start.
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