Hidden Yankees relief weapon just uncorked an insane Triple-A debut

On an ice-cold day in Buffalo where even Carlos Lagrange couldn't reach his top heat, Yovanny Cruz showed exactly why Yankees fans wish he'd arrived at spring training a little bit earlier and a little bit healthier.

Cruz, a non-descript minor-league signing this offseason with Red Sox ties and a ceiling limited by significant command issues, was slowed during the buildup process this winter, unable to throw in a spring training game until it was too late to crash the Opening Day roster. But when he did first appear, he lit up both radar guns and eyes throughout the ballpark. In an instant, his potential became undeniable, dotting hundreds and 99s with pinpoint precision.

Suddenly, our collective lack of familiarity didn't matter; Cruz was not a want but a need in the big-league bullpen. It reached the point where Aaron Boone had to address his arrival by essentially saying, "I mean, he's not going to make the roster after two innings, but ... yeah, we all see it, too."

Whether Boone, Cashman and the Yankees knew they had something in Cruz all along, or whether his swift development was a happy accident, will be debated all summer long (as long as summer goes well). For now, he's down in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre continuing to work on his one glaring flaw and hoping his late-spring command progress was legitimate, just like the rest of us.

His first outing couldn't have gone better.

Yankees hidden bullpen ace Yovanny Cruz hasn't missed a beat since late spring training arrival

Cruz zoomed through that first inning of work in untouchable fashion, and ultimately completed two innings, allowing only the ghost run in the extra frame. He issued an intentional walk, paired with an unintentional one, and struck out three.

The Yankees' bullpen picture, and Cruz's role in it, will be less under the microscope if the MLB corps continues to take collective strides. Jake Bird owned the middle innings during the season's first weekend in San Francisco, and Camilo Doval showed more poise (and more high-velocity movement) than we'd experienced at any point last summer.

But the 'pen is still unproven, and its story remains unwritten. If Cruz follows on his current trajectory, he'll certainly get a look at some point this summer, even if the rotation overflow eventually necessitates a Ryan Weathers/Will Warren/Luis Gil move to the middle innings, too. He's just that filthy in the early going.