No way, Jose? Yanks may do it
CHICAGO — On Tuesday night, the Yankees will get their first look this season at White Sox southpaw Jose Quintana, a potential trade target as the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline approaches. The Yankees are in desperate need of a starting pitching upgrade — whether it comes from internally or outside the organization.
However, rookie Jordan Montgomery was terrific in Monday night’s 6-5 victory over the White Sox, allowing just one run on five hits while striking out eight over seven innings. In his last five starts, the 24-year-old southpaw is 4-0 with a 2.59 ERA.
“I definitely wanted to go out there and give it everything I had tonight,” said Montgomery, who gave the Bombers some much-needed distance.
During their recent 2-10 skid, Yankees’ starters had compiled a 5.63 ERA while averaging just over five innings per outing. As a result, their bullpen has been overworked, leading to some blown leads. On Monday night, the Bombers almost blew a 6-1 lead in the ninth due to the shakiness of Chasen Shreve and Aroldis Chapman.
Tyler Clippard has given up nine runs in his past three appearances, while Jonathan Holder has been ineffective of late and Adam Warren is still on the disabled list due to shoulder inflammation.
“We’ve got to start getting some length out of our starters,” Joe Girardi said before the game. “We’ve got to get these guys back on track. It’s difficult when your starters don’t give you the length you need. We’ve had to make moves because of it.”
Quintana, who used to be in the Bombers’ farm system, has appeared to get back on track with Chicago after a terrible start to 2017. In June, he’s pitched to a 2.25 ERA in four outings while posting a 3-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a .599 OPS against.
The Yankees and White Sox talked about a Quintana deal in the offseason, but were unable to reach an agreement. Quintana is attractive because of his age (28), contract (four years, $38 million total, with two team options through 2020) and track record (four straight seasons of 199.1 or more innings pitched, including a 3.35 ERA over that span).
Everything has seemingly gone downhill since CC Sabathia got injured on June 13 and was placed on the disabled list with a Grade 2 hamstring strain. Sabathia had posted a 0.99 ERA in his previous six outings.
In two starts since replacing the 36-year-old veteran in the rotation, Luis Cessa has gone 0-2 with a 7.00 ERA. Cessa will start again on Thursday.
Masahiro Tanaka’s last start was encouraging — 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K on Friday — and his velocity was up. But he hasn’t put together back-to-back quality outings since April 19 and 27. And Michael Pineda reverted back to his old mind-boggling ways on Sunday, missing location and getting mashed as a result. Youngsters Luis Severino and Montgomery have been last pleasanttwo starts surprises, have thoughbeen subpar. Severino’s
And next season, the Yankees could conceivably have two open rotation spots, assuming that Tanaka does not opt out of the final three years and $67 million of his deal. Sabathia is in the final year of his deal right now, while Pineda, who is also in the final year of his deal, is proving unworthy of a significant long-term investment.
So Quintana makes sense for the Yankees in both the present and future. As might Gerrit Cole and Sonny Gray, who check off similar boxes.
“We’re always engaged with the marketplace, as well as comparing it to what we have,” Brian Cashman told the Daily News. “There are choices internally you’ve seen us use, whether is a Cessa, a Domingo German and obviously Montgomery and Severino from our system, to help our rotation. We’ve got Chance Adams knocking at the door, trying to say, ‘What about me? We’ll see.”