Yankees’ biggest issue? ‘Too much pitching’
TAMPA — Four years ago, the New York Yankees entered spring training with a trio of young pitchers — Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain — who seemed to be the foundation of their future staff.
Hughes remains in the picture, though he’s coming off an injurymarred season in which he posted a 5.79 ERA. Kennedy has grown into an ace, winning 21 games last season — for the Arizona Diamondbacks, who acquired him in a December 2009 trade. And Chamberlain, who already was recovering from Tommy John elbow surgery, might be lost for the 2012 season after gruesomely dislocating his ankle in an off-field accident last week.
The unpredictability and fragility of pitchers, especially young ones, is one reason New York loaded up with arms this year, creating a logjam of starters. Whereas the 2011 Yankees had to fill out the rotation with retreads Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon, the 2012 team has seven candidates for five spots after Andy Pettitte’s unexpected decision to come out of retirement.
“You’re curious to see how guys are going to respond to this, having another starter in the mix,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “As I’ve said all along, if you don’t want someone to take your job, don’t let them. That’s the spirit of competition, and it should bring out the best in people.”
And it should make the Yankees, who had the American League’s best record in 2011 at 97-65, an even more formidable force.
Behind ace CC Sabathia, free agent acquisition Hiroki Kuroda, who posted a 3.07 ERA for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season, and Pettitte, once he joins the rotation, a four-way battle has heated up among Hughes, Garcia, 16game winner Ivan Nova and trade addition Michael Pineda.
“I thought they had too much pitching before,” first-year Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said. “Now, what do they have? Too, too, too much pitching?”
It might be for this season, but the Yankees are thinking long term.
They gave up highly touted prospect Jesus Montero, a slugging catcher, in a January trade with the Seattle Mariners for Pineda, who made the All-star Game as a rookie in July before faltering in the second half.
Pineda, 23, is making $530,000 this season and is under team control through 2016, which was a significant part of his appeal in the trade.
Next year’s rotation potentially could feature Sabathia, Pineda, Hughes, Nova and one of the team’s top pitching prospects, right-hander Dellin Betances or left-hander Manny Banuelos. Sabathia, 31, is the old man of the group, otherwise made up of cheap, under-26 talents. Hughes, at $3.2 million a year, is the only other one earning more than $550,000.
Cost has become an increasingly important consideration in light of managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner’s desire to trim payroll so the Yankees can be under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold by 2014. That would require a cut of more than $20 million from their current payroll.
To reach that goal, they’ll need a healthy supply of cheap youngsters who can provide a balance for the $78 million already committed in 2014 to Sabathia and infielders Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter.
Betances and Banuelos are expected to spend most of 2012 in Class AAA but could be major league-ready next year.
“If you have great talent coming, it allows you to replace maybe major league talent you have at the top end,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “We don’t need to be at the (payroll) levels we are right now, but we’re thankful to have the ability to get to that level.”
Steinbrenner’s directive has raised speculation about the team’s ability to re-sign second baseman Robinson Cano and outfielder Curtis Granderson, who can become free agents after the 2013 season. The contracts of outfielder Nick Swisher and catcher Russell Martin expire after this season.
“If I could write that script, I know exactly how my story would end,” said Swisher, who has been outspoken in his desire to stay in New York.
The Yankees have promoted homegrown players such as Nova and infielder Eduardo Nunez in the last two years, and Cashman said more are on the way. Class A outfielder Mason Williams, for example, is already touted as a future star. But the new generation will have to prove capable of succeeding under the intense New York glare.
Pineda has quickly been exposed to that scrutiny as the velocity of his fastball — which early in the spring hovered around 90 mph before recently jumping to 94 — has been spring training fodder in the news media.
Pineda, a native of the Dominican Republic who conducts interviews without an interpreter in an effort to improve his English-language skills, said he didn’t mind all the attention and felt comfortable in New York.
As for the extra competition? He’s starting to realize that’s part of life in New York, too.
“They haven’t told me anything about that,” he said. “I’m focused on doing my job, not on what somebody else is doing. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m ready to pitch here or anywhere else.”