Yankees Add Pitching Reinforcements with Mitchell and Pazos Call Ups

The New York Yankees have attempted to bolster their thin pitching staff by promoting Bryan Mitchell and James Pazos to the big league roster Tuesday.

The Yankees made their second set of September call ups on Tuesday, promoting Triple-A pitchers Bryan Mitchell and James Pazos to the Bronx. Both guys have worn the pinstripes before, but injuries have kept them from contributing to the big league club in 2016.

James Pazos made 11 scoreless appearances for the Yankees in 2015, albeit pitching only five innings total. He gives the team a third lefty out of the pen along with Chasen Shreve and Tommy Layne.

This may mean fans will have to sit through a lot of boring pitching changes over the next month as manager Joe Girardi plays the matchups, but ultimately that’s a small price to pay for having extra weapons out of the pen.

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Pazos was placed on the minor league disabled list with an undisclosed injury on June 12th. He has made two appearances with Staten Island and five with Scranton since being activated August 19th. He’s yet to allow a run in that time, so apparently he’s suffering no ill effects from the layoff.

The promotion of Bryan Mitchell is especially interesting, because it indicates the team could be considering him for Chad Green‘s vacant rotation spot Wednesday. Girardi had previously told reporters that he’d like to see Mitchell make one more start in the minors before calling him up, going on to say:

"We want to see consistency in his stuff. He hasn’t had a lot of innings since he’s come back, and it’s more that we’re looking for the consistency of his stuff. We thought his last start was better, though."

After missing most of the season with a fractured toe, Mitchell will understandably be treated with kids gloves down the stretch, but he has made back to back strong starts for Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre since being activated off the disabled list.

One idea may be piggy-backing him with Luis Severino for the time being, throwing each of them for 3-4 innings. Severino is having trouble turning over lineups multiple times and Mitchell still hasn’t pitched more than five innings in a start this season, so that strategy could benefit both guys.

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It’s hard to fault a team for adding more pitching during September with rosters expanded. Things may get a little crowded in the bullpen, but the Yankees need every fresh arm they can find at this point.

The New York Yankees have attempted to bolster their thin pitching staff by promoting Bryan Mitchell and James Pazos to the big league roster Tuesday.

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