Minor League Thoughts From Rochester...

By Sal Maiorana

April 6, 2026

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Sal Maiorana shares his thoughts on the Yankees. Here is an edited version of Sal's latest article.

For Sal's complete analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

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I spent several days at the ballpark in Rochester this past week watching the Yankees’ Triple-A team play the Red Wings, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts on what I saw.

➤ Oswaldo Cabrera: The only way Cabrera is any use to the Yankees is as a super utility man who can play everywhere, and that’s what he did in this series. RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan clearly has his marching orders as they try to get Cabrera properly ramped back up after he missed the last four months of 2025 with that ugly broken ankle. He played short, first base, second base and left field in the series and handled each position flawlessly, but his spring training struggles at the plate have carried over into the season and he finished the weekend batting .188 with a .257 on-base.

➤ Jasson Dominguez: He crushed two leadoff homers in the series, the first one Wednesday batting left-handed, but the more impressive one coming Friday right-handed when he laid into a hanging slider and hit it 105.5 mph over the wall in left. He also had a double batting right-handed and that’s what the Yankees need from him, pop from the right side. He has started the season well at the plate with a .379 average and 1.110 OPS, but his follies in the field continue. Friday, on a gusty day, a ball was hit into the left-center gap and he was there in plenty of time to make the catch, but he dropped it. That has to stop happening.

➤ Spencer Jones: Man, he’s a tough watch. In the first three games of the series he struck out in 10 of his 15 plate appearances and by the end of the weekend he had 14 whiffs in 22 appearances. He went 3-for-21 with a walk, but he did hit a grand slam on Sunday giving him two homers and nine RBI in his first eight games.

➤ Carlos LaGrange: As expected he lit up the radar gun in his start in the first game of a doubleheader Friday, but his command was terrible. He faced 16 batters and gave up just one hit, a solo homer to one of the Nationals’ top prospects, Dylan Crews, but he walked five and threw just 42 strikes on 72 pitches across 3.1 innings. The home run came on a terrible middle-middle 90.8 mph changeup. He was routinely sitting 97-99 mph with his heater, and he topped out at 101 mph and I can tell you, seeing it live, he has electric stuff, but he’s nowhere near ready to go up to New York.

➤ Elmer Rodriguez: Like LaGrange, big things are expected from Rodriguez who was obtained last year from the Red Sox in the trade that sent catcher Carlos Narvaez to Boston. Rodriguez started the second game of the series and took the loss but he pitched well. This was just his second start in Triple-A and he gave up three hits and a run within the first four batters he faced in the first inning, but thereafter he finished off five innings and gave up just one more hit and two walks with two strikeouts. He’s no LaGrange in terms of velocity, topping out around 95-96 mph but he has better command, at least right now.

➤ Luis Gil: The Yankees didn’t need a fifth starter in the first two weeks so Gil stayed in Florida for a little bit to work on his mechanics, then flew up to Rochester and pitched the series finale Sunday. It wasn’t great. He went 4.2 innings and allowed three runs on four hits and four walks with six strikeouts, and his fastball was a tick or two down in the 93-95 range. Like LaGrange, Gil was all over the place, but unlike LaGrange, he is heading back to Tampa where where he’s lined up to pitch Friday against the Rays.

➤ Kervin Castro: He was in the running for a bullpen role right to the end of the spring before getting sent down. He has thrown five scoreless innings for the RailRiders with just three hits and two walks allowed.

➤ Yovanny Cruz: Perhaps the most impressive pitcher I saw was this power right-hander who was blazing at 99-100 mph as he appeared twice and threw 2.1 scoreless innings with four strikeouts, the only blemishes being two hit batsmen. For the season, he’s at 4.1 scoreless innings, so if that keeps up, maybe he’ll get a call up at some point if the bullpen suffers injuries.