As the Yankees opened the 2017 Grapefruit league season with their Friday matinee with the Phillies, 25-year-old right-hander Bryan Mitchell got the Pinstripes off to a good start.
Mitchell breezed through his outing setting down all six Phillies hitters he faced in order. Over his two innings of work, Mitchell needed only 27 pitches to retire the side both times in order with one strikeout on his ledger.
Sitting consistently in the mid-90’s with his fastball, Mitchell appeared crisp and executed all of his pitches effectively.
Following his outing, Mitchell spoke with Yankees clubhouse reporter for the YES Network, Meredith Marakovits. When discussing his outing, Mitchell revealed that he is working on adding a splitter to his pitch repertoire for the 2017 season and beyond.
Since the splitter is an especially hard pitch to master, Mitchell said he’s looking to Masahiro Tanaka for some help. Tanaka, of course, has one of the better splitters in the game and can really help Mitchell develop the pitch into a nice weapon to have.
Being granted the first opportunity to make his case for the backend of the Yankees rotation, Mitchell made the most it and will look to capitalize off of this momentum throughout the remainder of spring training. Perhaps his newfound pitch can help separate himself from the rest of the pack.
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