The Shohei Otani ship has sailed Yankees fans but that does
not mean this offseason has to be a disaster for Brian Cashman and company. The
Yankees have a plan and a young stable of starting pitchers ready to start the
2018 season including Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray and Jordan
Montgomery with the likes of Justus Sheffield, Chance Adams and others waiting
in the wings down in the minor leagues. The Yankees need one more starter, if
at all, next season and that one starter will likely be CC Sabathia. Just for
fun though, and for the sake of not assuming that it will simply be Sabathia just
because of old loyalties and such, let’s take a look at the free agent class of
starting pitchers to see if any other arms should entice the Yankees.
First and foremost, you can erase any ideas of expensive
arms like Jake Arrieta, Jeremy Hellickson or Yu Darvish joining the Yankees
staff in 2017. Those three arms will look to cash in big time this offseason
via free agency and neither will likely fit into the austerity plans the New
York Yankees have going forward leaving a lackluster list of potential arms.
Just some of the arms available for New York include Anibal Sanchez, John
Lackey, Ubaldo Jimenez, Ricky Nolasco, Chris Tillman, Andrew Cashner, Jason
Vargas, Hector Santiago, Lance Lynn, Clay Buchholz, Jaime Garcia, Miguel
Gonzalez, Alex Cobb and Bud Norris to name a few.
Out of that group of names obviously Alex Cobb is the most
intriguing, the problem with Cobb though is that he is tied to draft pick
compensation after being offered a qualifying offer this winter by Tampa Bay.
That should in itself rule him out in my book, although the Yankees do have a
great farm system and may be willing to part with a first-round pick for Cobb’s
services. Who knows. All I know is I want no part of any other name on that
list. It is either Cobb and the first-round draft pick, CC Sabathia or bust if
you’re asking me. If not, then I would be more than comfortable with letting
the Yankees ride with who they currently have and bringing up another young kid
from the minor leagues to battle it out during spring training camp.
Also, don’t forget about Michael Pineda even though he is
likely to miss the entire season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in June of
2017. He may be back in August or September of this coming season but to bank
on that would be foolish for New York. Pineda may be an absolute steal for the
2018 season though, so a two-year deal is and should always be on the table in
my opinion.