Henry Lalane Report

Lalane was named pitcher of the week in the Florida State League (A) for the Tampa Tarpons after a dominant 7 innings performance that saw him give up just one hit and no walks while striking out 12 against a lineup full of Blue Jay top prospects and AAA/Major League rehabbers.   

Lalane has a prototypical starters build with plus height and solid weight. The lefty moves well for his size and has some deception in the delivery as he counter rotates the torso more than most which allows him to hide the ball from the hitter and make at bats uncomfortable especially for lefties. Additionally, his height and delivery allow him to get good extension on all his pitches and even more so on the changeup.  

The fastball sat comfortably at 95 throughout the outing, but Lalane clearly had the ability to run it up to 97/98 when he wanted to. That velo specifically from the left side will continue to keep the offering at least average despite the movement profile not being outstanding. After injuries have kept his velocity down in the past, it is really encouraging for the Yankees to see him hold this level of velocity for 7 innings. Additionally, Lalane showed great progress in command as he was locating the fastball well throughout, and his walk numbers are down significantly from the last couple of seasons.  

The changeup was the primary secondary to the righties and was incredibly effective throughout. Lalane really sells the changeup with good arm speed but is still able to get roughly an 11 mph speed differential from the fastball, which makes it difficult for the hitters to wait back on the offering. This led to a well above average 60 percent whiff rate (9 total) and an even better 83 percent chase rate. In the end, 5 of his 12 strikeouts came on the offering, all of which were swinging. The ability to kill spin on the changeup along with the solid movement profile makes this an above average offering. 

The slider was mixed in to righties (only 6 in the outing) but was thrown mostly to lefties. While going through the film, it was evident that Lalane is working on two different breaking balls as he would occasionally shake the catcher off from a 2 to a 3 or vice versa. More evidence of this would be the large variance in movement on the plot in the report. Some of the sliders seem to be large sweepy sliders with others having a slightly firmer gyro shape. It’s hard to truly differentiate the two right now so deciding which pitch is better will have to wait. The slider command was not great as there were times he would leave the pitch up over the plate with two strikes, but that is more encouraging than seeing him spray glove or arm side. Right now, the offering is not quite average, but there are encouraging signs and the Yankees are clearly having him prioritize the development of it.  

If the slider continues to develop, Lalane certainly has the ceiling of a big league starter. At worst, he can likely be a middle to backend bullpen piece for the Yankees in the near future. 

Grades