It appears that Justus Sheffield will be packing his bags for Washington, D.C. in a few weeks.
The Yankees’ top pitching prospect has been selected to pitch in the July 15 Futures Game as part of the MLB All-Star Game festivities at Nationals Park, Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre manager Bobby Mitchell told reporters on Thursday.
Sheffield, a 22-year-old left-hander who is ranked the No. 2 prospect in the Yankees’ farm system by MLBPipeline, is 2-3 with a 2.61 ERA and 49 strikeouts in nine starts (10 games) since being promoted to the RailRiders from Double-A Trenton on May 3. In his last two outings (13 combined innings), Sheffield has allowed just one run.
With the Double-A Thunder, Sheffield completed five starts and posted a 2.89 ERA.
Here’s what Yankees’ VP of baseball operations Tim Naehring told YES Network’s Meredith Marakovits about Sheffield back in early May:
“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.”
Sheffield and Clint Frazier were traded from the Cleveland Indians to the Yankees in exchange for reliever Andrew Miller back in 2016.
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