With the spate of injuries and ineffectiveness currently plaguing the Yankees’ starting rotation, it would be the perfect time for the team’s top pitching prospects — right-hander Dellin Betances and left-hander Manny Banuelos — to prove themselves worthy of a shot at a rotation spot.
Instead, as former Triple-A teammate David Phelps made his first major league start earlier this week, both Betances and Banuelos remain with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, as they have begun the year dealing with bouts of injury and ineffectiveness themselves.
Betances, the 6-foot-8 New York native who the Yankees drafted in the eighth round of the 2006 draft, has dealt with control issues throughout his minor league career, mainly because of struggles keeping his delivery under control, because of his massive frame. But this year — his first beginning the season in Triple-A — those control problems have cropped up again, derailing the opening month of his season.
Across six starts with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Betances has walked 27 batters in 28¹/₃ innings. Though those numbers are bad enough, they get worse when you take into account the fact he walked one batter in five innings in his first start.
Betances has walked at least four batters in each of his last five starts, including walking six three separate times, and has walked at least as many as he has struck out in each of those five starts, as well. In those five starts, in which he has allowed 22 runs (18 earned) on 24 hits in 23¹/₃ innings, he has thrown just 49 percent of his pitches for strikes.
In his latest start, Betances allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits in six innings Thursday against Rochester, striking out two, walking six and throwing 55 of his 108 pitches for strikes.
While Betances has spent much of his minor league career battling control problems, the biggest thing holding Banuelos back has been an inability to stay off the disabled list. A variety of injuries have kept the left-hander from ever throwing more than the 129²/₃ innings he finished last season with.
It took just two starts in 2012 for Banuelos to head back to the disabled list again, as he missed three weeks with a back injury after walking six batters in two innings in Buffalo on April 12.
Banuelos finally made his return to the mound on Wednesday, when he threw 3²/₃ scoreless innings against Rochester, giving up two hits while striking out five and walking none.
tbontemps@nypost.com