Yankees will use 6th Starter in Texas

The New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi and pitching coach larry Rothschild have seemingly made it their mission this season to give their starting pitchers as much rest as humanly possible. Why wouldn't they? Masahiro Tanaka has the injury concern with his partially torn ulnar collateral ligament, Michael Pineda's shoulder and innings limit is always a concern, CC Sabathia had knee surgery over the offseason as he deals with a degenerative knee condition and Ivan Nova has only made a handful of starts since returning off the disabled list from Tommy John surgery. While the idea of using a sixth starter at times, Adam Warren, and a spot starter at other times, maybe Bryan Mitchell, seems great on paper is it necessarily the best idea for this team in the middle of a penannt race?

Girardi announced before the series with the Minnesota Twins this weekend that the team did not have their rotation set beyond this weekend's series. With the series now all but over it is going to be interesting to see what direction the team goes in. You would assume that the team would want to insert a spot-starter before Tanaka's start on Tuesday to give him and the rest of the rotation an extra day of rest although that could become a bit problematic. Mitchell, the man who was sent down to Triple-A to get stretched out as a starter with the RailRiders, just pitched on Saturday seemingly making him unavailable to pitch again before Thursday.

Will the Yankees maybe be willing to use a combination of Chris Capuano and Adam Warren for one start or simply let everyone pitch on regular rest this time around? When you look at the stats for Pineda specifically on extra rest or more than four days rest you would hope the team allows him to pitch without the extra rest next time out.

Luis Severino pitched on Friday night making him seemingly making him available for a start on Wednesday while Branden Pinder could be used as a fresh arm if needed in the Yankees bullpen. Who knows what is going to happen, stay tuned.