The Yankees are running out of time to sort out their pitching puzzle, and Bradley Hanner does not look like the answer.
Hanner’s brief stint has been rough enough to make the decision feel obvious on paper. He owns an 8.59 ERA, has allowed four home runs in 7 1/3 innings, and doesn’t bring the kind of stuff that changes the conversation.
If he ever develops into something more, that’s a project for another season. It is not the kind of arm Matt Blake and the Yankees need to be sorting through with October baseball right around the corner.
That’s why the more logical move would have been Carlos Lagrange.
Fresh off the IL and throwing triple digits again, Lagrange is one of the organization’s top pitching prospects. There’s risk there, of course.
He’s still a rookie, and big-league stuff only means so much until it gets tested in the big leagues. That question matters in May, and it matters even more now, with the postseason approaching and a possible Wild Card matchup against the Red Sox looming.
If Lagrange were to make his debut against Boston in the American League Wild Card round, Boone would be asking a young pitcher to handle his nerves and a tough lineup at the same time. That’s a real concern. But the Yankees are not operating in a perfect world, and the injuries to Clarke Schmidt and Ryan Weathers have already forced their bullpen plans into chaos.
The club has started to patch things together however it can. This week, it even tried Luis Gil in relief.
That experiment did not help his case; Gil walked four and struck out none in his most recent outing on Thursday. Shortly after the 6-4 win over the Rays, both Gil and Hanner were optioned to the Florida Complex League.
At this point, the Yankees need information more than comfort. If they were waiting for the ideal moment to give their top pitching prospect a little ceremony, that moment is gone. The priority now is figuring out who can actually help in the bullpen, and whether Lagrange can handle the job should be answered on the field.
The schedule gives them a chance to do exactly that. The Yankees have three games left in 2026 against Pete Alonso’s Orioles, including a doubleheader and an afternoon game. With an off day on Saturday, the cleanest path would be to give Lagrange a look in one of those games and then again on Sunday, letting Boone see how he responds and how he recovers.
What should not happen is another turn for Hanner. He doesn’t look like a postseason arm, and he shouldn’t get a single postseason inning.
At best, he’s an innings-eater. Nothing more.
Calling him up over Lagrange again would be another glaring mistake.
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