Struggling Hiro hard to find
be considered a No. 1 or even a No. 2 starter. Rather, they’d be back-of-rotation guys, even on the Yankees.
Cole, who was 19-8 with a 2.60 ERA in his breakthrough 2015 season but lasted only five innings in each of his last two postseason starts, is 3-5 with a 4.27 ERA after back-toback horrible starts against the Mets; Quintana is 2-7 with a 5.30 ERA for the White Sox, and Teheran is 5-4 with a 5.40 ERA and a Tanaka-like yield of 14 homers in 66 2/3 innings for the Braves. Would you trade a Tyler Wade and/or Clint Frazier for any of them? Maybe 30 years ago George Steinbrenner might have, but definitely not Hal Steinbrenner. (In the case of Cole, I am always wary of National League pitchers coming from low-pressure cities like Pittsburgh to New York.)
Meanwhile, for what it’s worth, some of the best pitchers in baseball last year — Jake Arrieta, Rick Porcello, Jacob deGrom — as well as Wainwright, Verlander, Cueto and King Felix, all presently have ERAs of over 4.30. It’s been a particularly rough year for the topof-the-rotation starters, although according to the Elias Bureau, the overall starting pitchers’ ERA is gradually inching upward from a 22year low of 3.82 in 2014, to 4.10 in ’15, 4.34 last year and 4.38 presently.
So, assuming Tanaka cannot be fixed (and his opt-out now moot), where do the Yankees go in an effort to patch this seemingly gaping hole at the top of their rotation? With their trade options all unappealing, not worthy of even considering sacrificing a top prospect, their only options would appear to be from within. It’s still a very small sampling, but they have to hope Luis Severino will continue to pitch like a high-end starter, at the same time the rest of the rotation, Michael Pineda, CC Sabathia and the rookie, Jordan Montgomery, stays healthy and continues turning in consistent, quality (if not dominant) starts.
Scouts I’ve talked to believe Chad Green has the kind of overpowering stuff to potentially be a more-than-decent mid-rotation starter, but there are questions about the same-ness of his pitches and whether he can do it and give you innings on a consistent basis. On the other hand, Chance Adams, who is dominating at Triple-A Scranton, will very likely be called up to the Bronx before the end of the season, once the Yankees determine he is command-ready. As one American League exec told me Thursday: “The Yankees may not have an ace, but they have no shortage of quality starting pitching, both here or near.”
How refreshing it must be for the Yankee high command to be able to have so many resources in house to potentially fill their needs and not having to do something in the trade market they could wind up regretting for years down the road.