Yankees call up top pitching prospect and it’s not Justus Sheffield

After losing against the Mets Friday night the Yankees sent down Domingo German to Triple-A to work on his mechanics. Luis Cessa will replace him in the rotation, but for now, the team will call up Domingo Acevedo for the first time in his professional career.

Acevedo’s first big league stint is likely to be a short one, but he should get the opportunity to make his big league debut in the coming days. He’s been a starter for the majority of his minor league career so he will be used if the Yankees need some length in long relief.

With Double-A Trenton Acevedo has had a solid season and since he’s already on the 40-man roster he got the call.

Cessa will be called back up to pitch in German’s spot next Wednesday in Tampa but in the meantime, it should be exciting to get a look at Acevedo. According to MLB Pipeline, he’s the Yankees seventh-best prospect and their sixth-best pitching prospect. He throws hard, up to triple-digits with his fastball and displays solid control with all of his pitches.

Acevedo still projects to be big league starter someday, but if that doesn’t work he has the stuff to be a late-inning weapon in relief because of his power stuff. The Yankees can never have too much bullpen help and because he’s already on the 40-man roster we could see more of Acevedo as a September call-up.

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The 24-year old Acevedo has been stuck at Double-A for a couple years now so it was surprising to see him earn the call-up. Tommy Kahnle has been pitching very well down at Triple-A and Yankee fans now he’s too good of a pitcher to be stuck in the minor leagues.

Hopefully, Kahnle will find his way back in the big leagues very soon because if the Yankees can’t find another starter to trade for they might as well make their bullpen an even bigger strength than it already is.

The move to call up Cessa to slide into the rotation comes as no surprise, especially after he threw six scoreless innings for Scranton Wilkes-Barre Friday night. He deserves another opportunity, but should he falter the Yankees have to start considering Justus Sheffield at some point.

They’re now 5.5 games back of Boston entering play today and continue to drop in the standings because of subpar starting pitching. As Sheffield continues to blossom down at Triple-A you have to wonder what more he can do to earn a big league start. His ceiling is much higher than Cessa’s and he might be a better option than Sonny Gray as well who has struggled for most of the season.

Next: Which starter not named Luis Severino can the Yankees trust the most?

They need to address their rotation woes as soon as possible. And with the lack of front-line arms available on the trade market why not see if Sheffield can make an impact instead?