CLEARWATER, Fla. — Eric Reyzelman’s breakout season stunned even Eric Reyzelman.
Final yr, the Yankees prospect was largely completely happy simply to be again on a mound.
He had undergone Tommy John surgical procedure as a freshman on the College of San Francisco.
He completed collegiately at LSU, the place he nearly threw solely a fastball and rode that fastball to turn into a fifth-round decide of the Yankees in 2022.
He proceeded to seem in simply 9 video games in his first two skilled seasons due to extra damage points: Again ache was sourced to a cyst on his again that required a sequence of surgical procedures to repair.
He took the mound in 2024 as a forgotten prospect who lastly was wholesome and now was otherwise outfitted: a one-pitch arsenal had expanded to a few, having realized a slider and changeup whereas rehabbing.
A pitcher who used to must “find a way,” he stated, via guts and smarts discovered himself in a position to blaze previous hitters as a substitute.
He soared via the system final yr, touching three ranges and ending at Double-A Somerset in a marketing campaign that completed with a 1.16 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 38 ²/₃ innings.
“Going out and seeing how it did play, and how the results looked,” Reyzelman stated this week, “at first, it was a shock.”
He and hitters had been equally baffled about overpowering stuff that resulted in a ridiculous stat line and an invite to main league camp.
This camp started poorly — an allergic response despatched him to the hospital earlier than the Grapefruit League season even had began — however has taken a flip towards what is likely to be the brand new norm for Reyzelman.
In his second look of the exhibition season, Reyzelman confronted three batters and despatched all of them again to the dugout with their heads down.
Phillies hitters on Thursday swung at eight of his pitches and missed 5 instances, Reyzelman reaching 98.4 mph along with his fastball as he struck out the facet.
“That looked like a guy,” supervisor Aaron Boone stated, utilizing a scouting time period that may be a excessive praise for a prospect. “It’s really good stuff, easy strikes, presence. Really strong outing.”
Reyzelman nonetheless leads with a fastball that has loads of journey however now has a changeup that he’s nonetheless tinkering with — throwing it a bit more durable than final season in a style that makes hitters suppose a fastball is coming — to go along with a sweeping slider.
“We’ve been able to do some crazy, crazy, things,” Reyzelman, a 23-year-old righty, stated of his time within the lab with Yankees pitching minds. “The slider and the changeup have come a long way.”
He threw two sliders Thursday, each touchdown within the zone for strikes.
Phillies batters swung at one among his two changeups and missed.
“That was ho-hum,” Boone stated after the 7-7 tie at BayCare Ballpark, “that was a dominant inning right there.”
Reyzelman certainly won’t break camp with the Yankees, having pitched simply 50 ¹/₃ profession innings within the minors, however he’s wanting like a pitcher who would possibly have the ability to assist as quickly as this season.
Such a improvement could be welcome for the Northern California native, however he’s dreaming larger.
“My real goal isn’t to pitch in the major leagues,” Reyzelman stated. “It’s to win the World Series, and it’s to be on a World Series-winning team and to have a real role in helping them do that.“Whether [a debut is] this year, whether that’s next year, whether that’s a month from now or two years, I know that I’m not changing a thing that I’m doing. I’m doing the exact same thing that’s gotten me to this point. And I know that I’m in an organization that knows exactly which buttons to press and which guys to use and how to use them.”
