Yankees’ top pitching prospect Justus Sheffield was pulled early from his start with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Friday night due to shoulder stiffness, according to DJ Eberle of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader.
Justus Sheffield was pulled because of shoulder stiffness. He didn’t want to come out but was pulled for precautionary reasons. He thinks he’ll be fine moving forward. #Yankees
— DJ Eberle (@ByDJEberle) May 12, 2018
Sheffield, a 21-year-old left-hander who is ranked the No. 3 prospect in the Yankees’ farm system by MLBPipeline, tossed 4.2 innings on Friday. He struck out six batters, but allowed two runs and four walks. It was Sheffield’s second Triple-A start, as he was promoted from Double-A Trenton on May 3.
With Double-A, Sheffield completed five starts and posted a 2.89 ERA.
Here’s what Yankees’ VP of baseball operations Tim Naehring recently told YES Network’s Meredith Marakovits about Sheffield:
“He’s going to continue to develop, work on the fastball command. But when you go watch him pitch, he’s a competitor. He’s a type of guy that you almost have to just hold the reins back on him a little bit. When the game heats up, he’s so competitive that sometimes that plays against him… We all felt the Double-A experience was good for him. He obviously competed and was doing well there. So, it was good to see him move on.
“These young men will tell us [if they’re ready for the majors]. History says that there’s going to be need for a number of arms, so hopefully he puts himself in a position that he’s talked about. That left-handed power arm — and again, I’ve mentioned to you multiple times about investing in our own future — it’s really nice to see young kids here that we know are going to be part of the nucleus moving forward. So when they do struggle, we’re learning from those times. And like I said, they’re going to be part of the core as we move forward.”
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