When Yankees No. 7 prospect RHP Domingo Acevedo was unwinding after a Double-A game, he got a knock at his hotel room door.
It was Trenton Thunder manager Jay Bell.
"I saw the manager, and I said, 'What happened? The manager is in my room,'" Acevedo said, via MLB.com's Amanda Bell. "The next thing I see is the pitching coach, and the manager said, 'I need a translator, your teammate.' So he [told my teammate I was getting called up], and I said, 'Oh, seriously?' and he said, 'Oh, yes, congrats.' I don't know, I started laughing and gave a big hug to my pitching coach and a little cry. I said, 'I need to call my mom.'"
True to his word, the next thing Acevedo did was phone his mom back in the Dominican Republic. Being that it was late at night, his mother was concerned why her son would be calling her at such an hour.
"I said, 'Take a seat and breathe,' and she said, 'What happened?'" Acevedo said. "I said, 'The Yankees called up for me to go to the big leagues.' She just cried with me."
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that he brought up Acevedo for protection in case the bullpen would be called upon early. Acevedo happened to be on his fifth day of rest ahead of Saturday's game.
"He kind of gives us that protection if we got in the situation where we needed a lot of length, he's the best option for us right now," Boone said.
Acevedo, 24, has a 2.84 ERA over 11 appearances for Trenton this season (8 starts). In 50.1 IP, Acevedo has 40 strikeouts/8 walks and a 1.13 WHP. He hasn't pitched in Triple-A this season, though he did in 2017, where he a 4.38 ERA across 12.1 IP.
Acevedo's fastball sits in the mid-high 90s, which could allow him to touch triple digits as he did a few years ago. The 6'7" righty also throws a high 80s changeup and mid 80s slider.
