Sheffield ready to 'shove' in Arizona Fall League

Double-A Trenton was in the midst of a historic season.
Night after night, the Thunder celebrated, en route to a franchise-record 92 wins. But during that run, the team's star pitcher was relegated to the bench.
"I think the hardest thing for me was seeing my teammates out there, celebrating wins and out there fighting and I'm just on the sidelines and I can't do much about it, especially the team we had this year," Justus Sheffield said.

In the fifth inning of a July 5 game against Reading, the Yankees' No. 4 prospect felt something in his side. The Trenton coaches came out, Sheffield tried to throw a warm-up pitch, but a "stabbing feeling" remained. It turned out to be a relatively large tear in his right oblique, leading to two months of being a bystander.
What made the injury worse was that Sheffield was off to the best start of his career. MLB.com's No. 79 overall prospect was 7-5 with a 3.09 ERA, 79 strikeouts and 33 walks in 90 1/3 innings before the injury.
"I felt like I was getting stronger and I was pitching better and my velocity was higher and overall just felt stronger," he said. "So it threw me back, having that injury."
Not only was Sheffield's ERA the best first-half mark of his four seasons, but he was also going deeper into games than ever before. After pitching in the seventh inning and not finishing it three times prior, the southpaw completed the seventh twice this season -- with one of those going as a complete game -- and he yielded just one earned run between the two outings.
"It took me three years to finally do it," he said with a laugh. "This year, I really wanted to show the Yankees that I can be a starter and I'm capable of going the distance, because that's what the starter's for -- keep the game close and pitch as deep as you can in the game and then hand it off to the bullpen."

Before Sheffield could return to helping the Thunder on the field, he made a stop in the Gulf Coast League for two rehab starts. With the Rookie-level Yankees, the 21-year-old allowed a run on four hits and one walk with six strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. He was finally ready to get back in Trenton pinstripes.
As he looked to stretch out once again, Sheffield went three innings in his return to Arm & Hammer Park on Sept. 3. Yielding two runs, the Tennessee native said it was hard for him to get back into "Double-A mode" after pitching in Rookie ball.
Sheffield had just a week to get reacquainted before it was time for the Eastern League playoffs, but that proved to be an easier adjustment. The 2014 first-round pick pitched four near-perfect innings for a combined no-hitter with Taylor Widener against Binghamton in the semifinals on Sept. 8, then held Altoona to two runs in 4 1/3 in the finals on Sept 13.

"I felt really good in the playoffs. I feel like I pitched really well, both games in the playoffs," he said. "We came up short, but it was that time, we had to win, so I think that mind-set kicked in and knowing we were fighting for a championship, you just go out there and your competitiveness just takes over."
Sheffield is ready to pick up where he left off, both with going deep into games, like he did before the injury, as well as that competitive drive, like he had in the postseason.
"Right now [the Yankees] just want me to get more innings under my belt. I think the goal this year was to be around 150 or 160, which I felt like I was on pace for," he said. "But yeah, get more innings and just continue to work on my craft, use all my pitches, throw more off-speed pitches in fastball counts, just work on being more of a complete pitcher to hopefully make the push for next year and see where it goes from there."
Sheffield was dominant in his Arizona Fall League debut, yielding one hit while striking out six over five innings for the Scottsdale Scorpions on Oct. 10.
While Sheffield is excited about all the new guys he gets to play with and against this fall, he's really just looking for more outings like that.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't say I want to go out here and dominate this thing," he said with a laugh. "Honestly, I just want to go out here and do well and enjoy it with these guys. ... But for it to be successful is to have fun and go out there and shove -- simple as that."