Yankees: Justus Sheffield could be inching closer to his big league debut

As the Yankees continue to assess the trade market for starting pitching help their top pitching prospect Justus Sheffield continues to improve with every start he makes at Triple-A.

About a month ago I wrote about the chances of Sheffield making his big league debut at some point this season for the Yankees. It seemed likely than that it was bound to happen and even more so today based on how he has pitched over the past month with the RailRiders.

Monday night Sheffield delivered the best start of his Triple-A career and the first such start where he pitched at least seven innings. He was outstanding only allowing one earned run and three hits while picking up six strikeouts. It marked his third straight outing going at least six innings which was something he rarely accomplished earlier in the season.

Here’s a look at Sheffield’s eye-popping numbers over his last five starts:

2-1, 1.78 ERA, 10 BB, 30 K’s, 23 H, 30.1 IP

Pitching deeper into games was one of the areas Sheffield had to work on before he earned a call-up and now that he’s done so his long-awaited big league debut could come sooner rather than later. It’s clear after watching this Yankee team over the past couple weeks that they need some more help in their starting rotation. Sonny Gray and Domingo German both struggled mightily in their most recent starts and rookie Jonathan Loasiga was sent down after his start Monday night.

Masahiro Tanaka is still out for another week or so and other than Luis Severino and CC Sabathia the Yankees just aren’t getting consistent performances out of their rotation. They’d obviously like to upgrade via trade but if they don’t make a deal or can’t find a true difference maker than Sheffield could be a potential internal option.

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When German takes the mound Tuesday night there is a chance that he could be pitching for his spot in the rotation. The same can’t be said for the veteran Gray in his next start but if German stumbles again tonight he could easily be replaced by the more highly regarded prospect in Sheffield. Sheffield still isn’t on the 40-man roster but if he keeps proving he’s ready the Yankees shouldn’t hesitate to clear up a spot for him.

They also might wait until after the All-Star break or the trading deadline to call up Sheffield but they should at least consider doing so before both. He is their top pitching prospect for a reason and right now he’s showing why at Triple-A. So while they wait for Tanaka to return and continue to look for potential trades why not see if Sheffield can make an impact now?

The Yankees know better than anyone if he is truly ready or not, but based on his numbers he’s done everything asked of him to earn a big league start sometime soon. If he gets called up Sheffield has a chance to make the same type of impact Luis Severino did back in 2015 when the Yankees called him up instead of making a trade.

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I’m not saying Sheffield should be called up instead of acquiring another starter but you can ever have too much-starting pitching. Adding a young left-handed starter with his kind of upside along with a veteran like J.A Happ could really boost this Yankees starting staff and give them the type of rotation they need to win the AL East.