New York Yankees: Yanks send future face of rotation Jonathan Loaisiga to Triple-A

The New York Yankees have demoted Jonathan Loaisiga by sending him to Triple-A. However, he is the future face of the Yankees rotation.

Former New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez still has his J-Lo,but the Yankees no longer have their “J-Lo”. Jonathan Loaisiga was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday.

Loaisiga threw a career-high 92 pitches in four innings, allowing three runs and five hits, in Monday night’s loss to the Atlanta Braves. The Yankees activated reliever A.J. Cole from the disabled list to fill the spot on the roster.

Cole and recent call-up David Hale will help a bullpen, which was heavily used on Monday as the Yankees use five relievers in the game. Yankees relieves combined for seven innings and threw 114 pitches in Monday nights 11-inning game.

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“We’ll have to be cautious a little bit tomorrow,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told Mandy Bell of MLB.com. “But with Cole coming back — between Cole and [David Hale] — we feel like we’re covered from a length situation, with both of those guys able to give us pretty good length.”

Loaisiga, who was called to the majors from Double-A Trenton last month when Masahiro Tanaka got injured, was 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA and 21 strikeouts in four starts.

In two of his outings he threw at least five scoreless innings. “J-Lo” is happy with how his first stint in the majors went.

“I think I did a good job,” he told Bell. “I helped the team win two games. It was a beautiful experience for me and a learning process. Now I just want to focus and try to get back as soon as possible to help the team.”

Even though Tanaka is expected to return next week, Loaisiga will probably pitch one of the doubleheader games against the Baltimore Orioles on Monday.

Before being called up to the big leagues, Loaisiga had made it as high as Double-A , where he was 3-1 with a 4.32 ERA in six starts. However he showed that he was worthy of the promotion by helping the Yankees win two games in his four starts.

“He’s been really good.” Boone told Zach Braziller of the New York Post about how Loaisiga has done. Boone went on to add:

"“At least met our expectations for what we hoped to get from him. He had one hiccup in his second start, but bounced back his last start. [He] had a whale of a game in Philly. People got a peek into why we’re so excited about him.”"

Boone continued, “The stuff is evident, the way the ball comes out of his hand. … I don’t think he’s been affected by the expectations or jumping to the big leagues all of a sudden. He’s handled everything incredibly well.”

The Yankees may need help right now with starting pitching, but Loaisiga is the future face of the Yankees rotation.

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He did a good job in his first four starts and will continue to get better. Loaisiga going to Triple-A is just a small setback, but he will be a starter for the Yankees in the near future.

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