ESNY’s Projected Starting Rotation:
The first three spots in this rotation appear to be locked up, for the time being.
Tanaka managed the third best ERA in the AL in 2016, Sabathia is coming off his best season since 2012 and Pineda was the AL Leader in K/9.
After that, the rotation’s depth chart is moderately unknown.
Luis Severino, Luis Cessa and Chad Green will battle for the last two spots in Spring Training with “fall back” options which include Adam Warren, Bryan Mitchell and youngsters that are knocking on the door in Triple-A.
No, this rotation isn’t ideal and won’t promise any improvement to a rotation that finished 10th in the AL in ERA last year, but if Cashman is on board with giving the kids a chance in the lineup, there’s no reason not to do it with the rotation.
The 22-year old Severino, although struggled in the rotation last year, shouldn’t be declared as a reliever quite yet after merely 11 bad starts.
Green got into some trouble with the long ball in his 12 games, yet struck out 10.2 batters per nine innings and even shut down the potent Blue Jays’ offense on Aug. 15 by striking out 11 and allowing just two hits.
If the Yankees were just one starter away from a legitimate championship run, it would be understandable to spend on a guy like Rich Hill.
That is not this team, however. Assessing the young talent and perhaps seeing the major league debuts of James Kaprielian, Dietrich Enns, Jordan Montgomery and Justus Sheffield should be the layout.
