Yankees third-round lefty Kyle Carr 'learning by fire' at High-A

WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. – As the third-round pick of the Yankees in the most recent MLB Draft, it’s certainly fair to expect Hudson Valley Renegades starting pitcher Kyle Carr to make his way up to Double-A sometime in the future.

Just when you might see the talented 21-year-old southpaw is anyone’s guess, however.

It’s been something of a rough start to his professional career at the High-A level thus far – he’s 0-2 with a 5.64 ERA in his first six outings with 19 strikeouts in 22 ⅓ innings and a 2.06 WHIP – but it’s also understandable given a variety of factors.

Used to pitching in what he said was pretty much “75 and sunny” all the time as he was dominating at Palomar (Junior) College in California last year, the La Jolla, California native hadn’t pitched in “real games” since being drafted last July, received a very ambitious assignment to open the season that saw him skip both the Florida Complex League team and Low-A Tampa, and wasn’t at all used to the cold temperatures he experienced upon heading up north.

Manager Nick Ortiz said earlier in the year that Carr actually couldn’t feel the ball coming off his fingers in one of his first outings. Temperatures, however, are slowly starting to get back to what he’s used to.

“I think as the summer heats up, so will Kyle Carr,” said Renegades pitching coach Spencer Medick. “He’s well below the average age for this level, and it’s his first taste of professional ball. He’s got the right makeup, he’s the right kind of guy. So I think as the weather warms up, so will he.”

Carr began his collegiate career at the University of San Diego, but played just his redshirt freshman year in 2022, making just nine appearances as he was sidelined by a broken hand just two years after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

“The main thing at USD was injuries,” Carr said. “I had three surgeries while I was there, and I kind of wasn’t in a great mental spot, and it affected my schoolwork a little bit. I felt like I needed a reset. I went back home, lived with my mom.  I also knew the head coach at the JUCO too, so I just needed that reset. In the end, it worked out.”

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Despite a labrum tear in his non-throwing right shoulder last year, Carr dominated at Palomar, and was a fast riser on many team’s draft boards, ultimately landing at 97th overall to the Yankees for a reported $692,000 signing bonus.

“That was my main goal, going to JUCO, just to get drafted,” Carr said. “I committed to a school as a backup plan, but my main goal was to get drafted. I have a great agent, and he was able to get a lot of scouts looking at me. I was excited that whole year, I felt like I had a lot to prove … (getting drafted) was everything I ever wanted. I think the biggest thing was seeing my mom’s face, because she’s put in even more work than me to get me here. Seeing that look on her face meant the world to me.”

The adjustment to professional baseball, Carr says, has been a big one, and he’s been working hard on his making his 6-foot-1, 175-pound frame more durable, saying he’s been feeling tired earlier than he’s used to in his outings; he left with the team trainer one pitch into his April 20 outing, but chalked it up to fatigue, saying the coaching staff noticed his velocity was down.

As he finds a routine that works for him, he expects the results to follow, and Medick is confident Carr can eventually follow in a long line of recent highly touted Yankees arms who ultimately proved they were ready to be pushed.

“The kind of guys we acquire are always the ones who are ready for the challenge; the Brock Selvidges, the Trystan Vrielings, the Drew Thorpes, (Chase) Hampton, you name it,” Medick said.

“I like that we are giving guys the opportunity to go challenge themselves, and then also have to learn by fire too. You can’t always baby these guys into their development process, sometimes it’s like, ‘Hey, we believe in you,’ and I think that’s some of what we do as an organization. We have some belief in the guys that we select and develop, but also allow them the challenge to learn and grow and not be afraid of that.

“This is really his first taste of getting to put together a gameplan on a team and really understanding how his stuff plays. He’s worked on a couple pitches too, he’s improved his slider, so it’s learning how the stuff plays. He might not be as advanced at the moment as some of our college guys who got four years plus a year of affiliate ball last year, so it’s a learning experience for him, but he’s cut from the right kind of cloth to make those changes happen.”

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Yankees third-round lefty Kyle Carr 'learning by fire' at High-A