Introducing Your Savior For 2014, Mr. Manny Banuelos

The New York Yankees were without one of their top prospects and a member of the “Killer B’s” in Manny Banuelos for the better part of two seasons after the lefty fell to Tommy John surgery. The Yankees have been babying him along this season only allowing him to pitch in two or three innings a game while trying to stretch him out. The reasoning for this is the fact that Banuelos is considered to be Major League ready and the Yankees may be keeping him in their back pockets for the second half of the season and any potential playoff pushes. Say hello to the 2014 savior in the Yankees starting rotation Mr. Manny Banuelos.

The Yankees have 67 games left this season so conceivably Banuelos could only start in a maximum of 13 games. This is all assuming that the Yankees call him up today and pitch him today which is extremely unlikely to happen. Banuelos currently has 44.0 innings pitched this season so, for a nice even numbers sake, Banuelos gets 10 more starts this season and gives the Yankees an average of six innings that’s only another 60 innings on his arm. Banuelos, in theory of course, could easily throw 60 more innings this season and be fine. That is all dependent on six innings a start as well which we all know wouldn’t happen for at least a month since the lefty isn’t exactly stretched out.

Banuelos is a left handed starting pitcher that has proven he can get major league hitters out and you can see spring training from a couple seasons ago if you doubt that. Banuelos has a fresh arm and could easily, in my opinion, step right in and at least replace Chase Whitley in the rotation. Adding Whitley to the bullpen is an addition by subtraction to the rotation and can really strengthen the pen. Whitley would add some stability to what has been a revolving door in the pen all season long and has been great in small spurts. Whitley has simply hit his innings wall and there is no coming back from that so you manage it and deal with it and that’s done in the bullpen.

Banuelos replaces Whitley, you get what you can out of Brandon McCarthy, you ride Hiroki Kuroda, Shane Greene, and David Phelps to the end and you hope and pray that you get Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda back in August. That looks to be the Yankees plan right now and with Banuelos it may actually be a good one.