Top New York Yankees pitching prospect Carlos Lagrange’s most recent relief appearance looked a lot like what the club envisions for him: a boost to its big-league bullpen.The 6-foot-7 right-hander entered at the top of the seventh inning Sunday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, sandwiched two strikeouts around a walk, hit 101.5 mph and got three whiffs on six of his sliders.“Right now, I think he can pitch in the big leagues,” Yankees director of pitching Sam Briend said in a phone interview this week.But right now isn’t what the Yankees are worried about. They know Lagrange’s transition from a work-in-progress starting pitcher to an immediate impact reliever is nearing its latter stages, but it isn’t finished.“It’s been really, really positive,” Briend said. “We’ve got a couple more weeks of this transition period here. Just trying to do the right thing by the kid and make sure he’s really prepared and bouncing back well in the bullpen role.”For Lagrange, Briend said, “the biggest thing” will be making sure he has a routine that allows him to be a potential do-it-all weapon for the Yankees while also keeping him healthy and confident in his new role.“How do you prepare between?” Briend said. “You’ve always done a lighter-touch bullpen and then a bigger bullpen, but going to the ‘pen, figuring that stuff out, I think he’s a little tired by the density, which is kind of what you would expect in that transition. So it’s just really figuring out that routine.”The Yankees believe Lagrange has “all the tools” to be anything from a multi-inning stopper like Michael King circa 2023 or Dellin Betances, to whom Lagrange is often compared because of their shared size and history as starting pitcher prospects who moved to the bullpen, Briend said.“He’s got the stuff to turn the lineup over,” Briend said. “He’s got the stuff to get out (on both sides of the plate). He’s got pretty neutral splits.”Manager Aaron Boone could use another high-leverage arm in his relief unit.Closer David Bednar has been solid, especially of late (0 runs in his last 11 outings). But outside of Fernando Cruz and Brent Headrick, the path to Bednar has often been rocky, and the Yankees are still expected to push for a late-inning reliever before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.The transition has been mostly smooth for Lagrange.The 23-year-old Dominican Republic native has posted a 2.19 ERA in five games and 12 1/3 innings as a reliever, striking out 17 batters and walking six. Three of his five appearances have been scoreless. He also has gradually decreased his workload, starting with a 62-pitch appearance and going just 22 pitches Sunday. And he has shortened his time between appearances by one day each time out.Soon, the Yankees will start treating Lagrange like a full-time reliever.“Moving into the reliever role,” Briend said, “you’ve got to be able to handle back-to-backs. … That’s not something he’s ever done in his career. We’ve got to make sure that he can handle that and bounce back. He knows how to prepare for that.”Lagrange started to show he might be MLB-ready during spring training when he touched 103 mph and didn’t back down while facing Aaron Judge and other Yankees in live batting practices.“You can look up at the radar and see a 103-mile-an-hour fastball he threw by me,” Judge said in February. “But I think it’s also just the presence he has on the mound. He’s a kid that we sent up some nasty lineups against us today, and he didn’t care. He wanted to be out there, and he came right after us.”But Lagrange put himself in a position to shine with his breakout 2025, posting a 3.53 ERA in 24 games (23 starts) between High A and Double A. The work landed him at No. 2 on The Athletic’s top Yankees prospects list and No. 88 in the top 100 overall.Before moving to the bullpen full-time on June 3, he had an up-and-down start to the season as a starting pitcher. In 11 starts at Triple A, he had a 4.41 ERA with lots of strikeouts (11.6 K/9) and lots of walks (4.6 BB/9).The Yankees still see Lagrange as a starting pitcher. They expect him to open next season as a starter and hope his major-league experience this year will help accelerate his growth. The Yankees didn’t need him as a starter this year, with their deep rotation performing well behind Cam Schlittler, the early favorite to win the American League Cy Young Award. They were also happy with their Triple-A depth of Elmer Rodriguez and Brendan Beck, and they expect Max Fried and Clarke Schmidt to return at some point in the second half.“Our starters have been outstanding in the big leagues this year,” Briend said, “and the place to get the most impact right now was looking at a bullpen role. You’ve got this guy (Lagrange) in-house who could be an awesome leverage arm for you — that was part of the conversation there. It was like, ‘Let’s take a shot on this.’”Lagrange accepted the challenge with aplomb.“He’s like, ‘I don’t care. Whatever helps the team,’” Briend said. “He is awesome.”And as long as Lagrange can put the finishing touches on learning a routine that will help him bounce back quickly between appearances, he might be awesome soon in pinstripes.