Yankees Minor League Player Profile: Bryan Mitchell

Bryan Mitchell is a recently promoted Triple-A RailRiders’ pitcher that has been making a name for himself in the last month. In four starts for the RailRiders, he has a 2.70 ERA and is gaining confidence with every start.

The North Carolina native was selected by the Yankees in the 16^th round of the 2009 draft straight out of high school. Now 23, Mitchell is making his push to reach the big league club. In fact, he was just named International League Pitcher of the Week this past week, for his two scoreless starts. He went 12 innings in two starts, including throwing 7 scoreless in his latest start, the longest outing of his career.

An interesting thing has happened to Mitchell the last two years. In both 2013 and 2014 he was brought up to a higher level during the season (from A+ to AA in 2013 and from AA to AAA in 2014) and both times his ERA was drastically better than it was in the lower level the same year. Of course, these are small sample sizes, but the numbers are there.

It is no secret that the Yankees have had a ton of injuries to their starting pitching this season. Four of their five starters from the start of the season are on the disabled list, either temporarily or are already out for the season. Mitchell has been a solid project for the team, and all his pieces are coming together. He’s a 6’3″ lanky kid with a fastball in the mid-90s. If he can control his pitches and get his change-up to consistently work for him, there is no reason why he cannot be in talks to emerge into the Yankees’ starting rotation on day one 2015.