Not all that long ago, it seemed like the New York Yankees might face the good kind of roster crunch come October: Among Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, Nestor Cortes, Luis Gil, Marcus Stroman and the finally healthy Clarke Schmidt, the team had more viable starters than it would have spots in its postseason rotation. Cole and Rodon figured to be locks, but how would manager Aaron Boone fill the remaining two slots? And which pitchers would wind up in the bullpen, or left off the first postseason roster entirely?
Flash forward a few weeks, and we have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Boone and the front office won’t have such a tough decision to make after all. The bad news is that this probably wasn’t how they wanted things to sort themselves out.
First, Cortes was placed on the IL after an MRI revealed a flexor strain in his pitching elbow, an injury that figures to knock him out until a potential ALCS at the very least. That opened up a spot start for Stroman on Wednesday night against the Baltimore Orioles, but rather than seize the opportunity, the righty fell flat, getting booed off the Yankee Stadium mound after allowing six runs on 10 hits in just 3.1 innings.
As if his 5.98 ERA in the second half hadn’t made this abundantly clear already, there’s simply no way that Boone can trust Stroman with the ball to start a playoff game. And that, combined with Cortes’ ill-timed injury, means that New York’s postseason rotation is more or less set.
Yankees postseason rotation seems set after latest Marcus Stroman disaster
Again, as long as Cole and Rodon are healthy, they’ll almost certainly start Games 1 and 2 of New York’s first playoff series. The obvious choice for No. 3 is Gil, who’s gotten his command back under control of late (relatively speaking, at least) and has as much upside as anyone on this pitching staff. And for the fourth and final spot, it’s hard to see Boone going with anyone other than Schmidt at this point.
Stroman has allowed a whopping 35 hits across his last four starts; his game is predicated on command and weak contact, and when he’s off, the results are disastrous. Schmidt, meanwhile has pitched to a 2.61 ERA in four starts since returning from the IL on Sept. 7, picking up right where he left off prior to his injury.
In an ideal world, Cortes would fill this spot, given his experience advantage over Schmidt and how good he’s looked over the past couple of weeks. With the lefty unavailable, though, it’s pretty clear who New York’s top four starters are at this point.
