LAKELAND , Fla. — We are going to make a bigger deal of this than he will, and that may be the most important thing to take away from James Kaprielian’s spring training debut at Joker Marchant Stadium.
And by “we” I mean the catholic “we,” the universal “we,” press and fans and scouts and teammates, all of us forever on the lookout for the kind of big arm that takes our breath away, that gets our imaginations rushing, that tries to push the fast-forward button and speed talent through Tampa and Trenton and Scranton.
Kaprielian himself?
This six-up, six-down dismissal of the Tigers during a 3-0 Yankees exhibition loss to Detroit was little more than a notable slab of sidewalk on what he understands — what he embraces — as a deliberate pathway to where he wants to go.
“All the guys at the big league level, they’ve all been through what I’m going through right now,” Kaprielian said after throwing 26 pitches, hitting 96 mph with his fastball on seven of then. “I’m going to lean on them, listen to them. They’ve been in my shoes. I take what I can to get better.”
Yes. We don’t even need Larry Rothschild, wizened pitching coach, long past his first rodeo, to provide the buzzkill, even though he was happy to do it: “It’s one outing,” he said. “You can tell a lot more when things aren’t going well than when they are.”
Understood. And yet, on a team that finally has embraced the notion of youth, that has gone back to its roots trying to generate their own prospects, Kaprielian represents so much of who the Yankees are now, and what they aspire to be. He was the Yankees’ highest draft pick in 22 years when they took him 16th overall last summer, signing him to a $2.65 million signing bonus.
After just 11 ¹/₃ innings last year spread between the Gulf Coast and Staten Island Yankees, Staten Island handed him the ball to start its playoff opener against the Tri-City ValleyCats and he delivered six innings of four-hit, one-run ball. The Yankees understood right away the former UCLA Bruin was mature enough to handle that assignment.
So this one, the first time he faced major league hitters, two days after his 22nd birthday? He could handle this, too. No worries.
“He’s pretty mature for his age,” manager Joe Girardi said.
“More anxious than excited,” Kaprielian said. “I’ve worked hard to get here.”
He fell behind 2-and-0 to Jose Iglesias, the first batter he faced, then roared back to strike him out on an unfair slider that Iglesias barely waved at. Two batters later, he blew away Ian Kinsler with a twisting 93-mph fastball that backed up a 96-mph heater. And after coming out for a second inning, he retired Mike Aviles, Andrew Romine and Victor Martinez on two line drives and a grounder.
“I tried to slow the game down to pitch-to-pitch,” he said. “Step off the mound. Use the place a little bit. Remember, there’s nine of us and I’m only one of them.”
That is a precocious athlete talking, one who won’t jump to conclusions or speed the process along. And that wasn’t even the best part of his self-analysis. The Tigers emptied their bench after his first inning, meaning he didn’t get to face Miguel Cabrera, due to hit second in the sixth.
“The one guy I wanted to face,” he said, smiling. “I had a game plan and everything.”
Vinnie Pestano, who surrendered a rocket blast of a three-run homer to Miggy a few innings earlier, might advise Kaprielian to be careful what he wishes for, but how do you not like a kid of 22 years and two days wanting to have a go at one of the two or three best hitters on the planet?
“I think the kid loves to compete,” Girardi said. “He wants to see where he matches up.”
For now, those matchups will happen far away from Yankee Stadium, and Kaprielian sounds almost relieved that he can simply worry about learning and not fighting for a spot in the big league rotation for a while. Those kinds of visions are for the rest of us. The catholic “us,” the universal “us.”
Big arms can still do that to us, can’t they?
