Despite the injury, Henn was named as the No. 10 prospect in the Yankees organization by Baseball America.
He fought back to lead the Eastern League in innings pitched and starts in 2004 and earned a berth on the Yankees 40-man roster to open Spring Training.
Yankees manager Joe Torre said that he was impressed with Henn from the start and that, even though it was a one-shot deal, Henn was part of the Yankees future.
The Yankees have an aging pitching staff that has shown signs of breaking down in the first month of the season. Henn has a shot at being in the next wave of prospects to either be traded for a bigger name hurler, or make it to New York on a permanent basis.
“He’s big (6-4, 215) and he has a strong left arm, so we noticed him in Spring Training,” Torre said. “He’s got good insight… He tried too hard in spring training, but we know what he can do. I feel reasonably sure he’ll be back in the big leagues.”
Hopefully it will be a longer trip. This one was a little nuts.
“The last two days have been absolutely crazy,” Henn said. “I started to call everybody, then my phone started ringing like crazy. I wanted to try to take it like it was just another game, just like the one I’ve been playing since I was 6, but things really were crazy.”
Henn said that he was a little nervous when he took the mound for his debut at Tropicana Field. Torre said it was a little more than that.
“He was nervous as hell,” Torre said. “I could tell, but he was fine until we started to unravel.”
Henn’s start didn’t go as well as he had hoped. He allowed two runs in the first two innings, but things fell apart in the third.
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