The New York Yankees have enacted a six-man rotation that
comes into fruition this week but according to manager Joe Girardi it will only
be here for this turn through the rotation. Tonight the Yankees start Sonny
Gray as we learned this morning in our “So it Seems” post and again in the game
preview post that just went live a few hours ago while tomorrow Jaime Garcia
makes his Yankees debut after coming over in a trade from the Minnesota Twins.
Logistically the Yankees could make a six-man rotation work for the remainder
of the season if they wanted to but the team seems against it at this point, at
least publicly, leaving me to wonder which of the Yankees starters will be
bounced from the starting rotation. You have to think that the rotation spots
of Masahiro Tanaka and CC Sabathia are safe along with Garcia and Gray’s spots
leaving the ultimate roster decision and battle for the Yankees. Who goes to
the bullpen to be the long man for Joe Girardi? Is it Luis Severino or is it
Jordan Montgomery?
Both pitchers have at least some experience pitching out of
the bullpen and both pitchers are on expected innings limits as well so either
starter could conceivably head down to the pen. Severino, just 23-years old, is
expected to pitch around 200 innings this season if all goes well and is
currently at 132.2 innings while Montgomery, 24-years old, is expected to pitch
around 170 innings which is just 60 innings away from where he currently sits
at 110.2 thus far this season. Using even numbers for simplicity sake and with
these two kids averaging six innings per start from here on out that leaves
Severino with just 11 starts remaining this season including the playoffs while
Montgomery could conceivably only make 10 starts from here on out at this pace.
That would likely leave both arms completely unavailable for the postseason,
which is not what you want.
So the ultimate decision and position battle comes down to
this. Which one heads to the pen and which one remains in the rotation?
Honestly with the way Severino has pitched you have to think he remains in the
rotation while Montgomery heads to the pen. That’s not to say Montgomery hasn’t
pitched well because he has, Montgomery has been extremely solid in his first
season as a starter at the MLB level, but Severino has been just flat out
dominant. Severino was elected to the All-Star Game this season and not because
of some fan vote but because he and his right arm earned it.
I truly doubt, and this is just using Joe Girardi’s past
transgressions and decisions as an indicator for the future, the Yankees would
use either men as a starter anyway in the postseason to be honest so it’s
better to just get what the team can get out of them both now. Severino is the
better starter in my opinion and should be used as such until he can’t be used
as such any longer this season.
Also, and I only mention this because I saw it mentioned on
Twitter, the idea of bouncing both men back and forth between the rotation and
bullpen to limit and use both men to their full effectiveness sounds great on
paper but it just won’t work. Many pitchers have shown an inability to do this
both effectiveness wise and health wise. See Joba Chamberlain. Not everyone is
Adam Warren and not everyone’s arm is built to do that. Whether a pitcher is
built to do that or not should be found out later on in their careers in my
opinion, not when both are 24-years old or younger. That kind of damage is
forever and that is not a risk I am personally willing to advise for or take.
What say you? Who wins the ultimate decision battle in your
eyes? Who heads to the bullpen and who heads to the starting rotation? Do the
Yankees send Montgomery down to keep pitching as a starter since his option for
the 2017 season has already been used? Leave them below in the comments
sections and/or shoot us a tweet on Twitter by tweeting @GreedyStripes. Thank
you and enjoy the rest of your Thursday. Sonny Gray is coming.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)