Yankees hope Carlos Lagrange can help them as a reliever this season

Cody Bellinger unknowingly channeled Mickey Mantle in a recent conversation about facing righthander Carlos Lagrange, a missile-throwing pitching prospect the Yankees recently shifted to the bullpen in the minor leagues. They hope he’ll help their relief corps on the major-league level sooner rather than later.

The Mantle story: Facing the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax for the first time in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series, Mantle, after three straight fastballs that brought the count to 1-and-2, got completely frozen by one of the lefthander’s famous nose-to-toes curveballs.

Before returning to the dugout, Mantle supposedly had a brief comment for Dodgers catcher John Roseboro.

“How the [expletive],” he said, “is anybody supposed to hit that?”

It was said, of course, with admiration.

Bellinger spoke in the same wow-factor manner as he recalled an early spring training at-bat in February against the 6-7, 248-pound Lagrange, known for a fastball that routinely surpasses 100 mph and has been clocked as high as 103, including this season.

“I’m pretty sure it was my first live BP this year, and I have never felt so late in my life,” Bellinger told Newsday, shaking his head with a smile. “He blew my doors off. It was my first live of the year, and I was like, ‘Oh, [expletive].’ I literally said, ‘What the hell?’ ”

Lagrange, 23, created that kind of buzz throughout spring training, first by blowing away many of the Yankees hitters he faced during live BP sessions and then plenty of those wearing opposing team jerseys. He struck out 17 in 16 1⁄3 innings in his five spring training outings.

It wasn’t only his fastball that stood out.

“It’s a good fastball, but I think, honestly, his off-speed stuff’s good, too,” Ben Rice said. “That’s one of the hard things about today’s game .  .  . Even when guys throw 100-plus, they still have off-speed offerings that are also really hard to cover. Any time you have that good of a fastball, it just becomes that much harder to cover the off-speed because you have to respect legit velocity and then somehow adjust to the breaking stuff.”

Lagrange started the season in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre rotation; the Yankees viewed him, and still do, as a big-league starter down the road.

But because of the season Lagrange put together last year — 11-8 with a 3.53 ERA and 168 strikeouts in 120 innings in 24 games (23 starts) between High-A Hudson Valley and Double-A Somerset — the organization began to dream of weaponizing him and his fastball as a bullpen piece at some point in 2026.

It was spoken of in general terms, with no real timetable for Lagrange assuming a relief role with Scranton. But without question, the uncertainty and inconsistency of the Yankees’ bullpen during the first two months of the season set the wheels in motion for the news that broke on June 2 that his transition would begin.

The Yankees, who still will target the relief market in advance of the trade deadline, are making that transition gradual. Lagrange is being “built down” rather than built up (the way starting pitchers are).

Lagrange made his initial relief appearance June 3 against Syracuse, allowing one hit and two walks in four innings in which he struck out seven. Outing No. 2 came on Tuesday, as he allowed one run, three hits and one walk in 2 2⁄3 innings against Lehigh Valley, striking out three.

According to MLB.com, Lagrange, who threw 46 pitches in the second outing, reached 101 mph on six of his 10 four-seam fastballs, maxing out at 102.1 mph. He has thrown 96 pitches at at least 100 mph this season, according to MLB.com.

Compared with his big-league brethren, only Jacob Misiorowski of the Brewers, Edgardo Henriquez of the Dodgers and Mason Miller of the Padres have thrown more.

Fans salivating about a Lagrange call-up should sit tight. There are more steps to be taken, among the most significant pitching in back-to-back games.

Additionally, he is far from a finished product as a starter, let alone a reliever.

“A little erratic,” said one rival National League scout who has seen Lagrange in relief. “The best pitches were really good, the stuff had fairly wide variance. Would like him to throw the sinker more. The four-seam gets whacked when it’s down. I don’t know that you’d feel great about him helping you win a game tomorrow, but maybe in a month.”

Whenever it is, Bellinger said, he’s looking forward to watching from the outfield (instead of the batter’s box) as Lagrange comes out of the Yankees’ bullpen.

Said Bellinger: “That would be, I would imagine, electric.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.