Would a Six Man Rotation Effect The Yankees In Free Agency?

The New York Yankees, before the injury to CC Sabathia over the weekend, announced that they were likely to roll with all six of their starting pitchers for the remainder of the 2015 season as they implement the six-man rotation. The team has tried to give as much extra rest as possible to Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia and Nathan Eovaldi this season and have inserted a sixth starter on a temporary basis more than once already this season which made the decision to go to a six-man rotation less of a surprise. Would the decision to go with a six-man rotation makes sense for the 2015 season and would it affect the Yankees plans for the 2016 season as well? Well, it could!

The starting pitching market will be absolutely insane this offseason with the likes of David Price, Jordan Zimmerman, Johnny Cueto and even Doug Fister hitting free agency this winter. With the idea of a six-man rotation, even on a temporary basis, still being uncharted territory in Major League Baseball it may potentially scare pitchers away from coming to the team with the fear of their routines and habits being messed with.

Another question would be whether the likes of Price, Zimmerman or Cueto would be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million plus per season for 25-28 starts in a season rather than 35 starts or so in the regular season.

Some pitchers have benefited from the extra rest, Tanaka and Sabathia as great examples of that, while others have struggled with the extra rest, see Michael Pineda, which could also be a huge factor in whether or not a pitcher will come to the club. While pitchers like David Price, who will be 30 in just a few days, is likely to sign his last big contract of his career this winter pitchers like Zimmerman and Fister will likely sign deals in the four-to-five year range leaving one more big free agency push to go in their careers. Would they want to risk struggling in New York in a six-man rotation for four or five years and risk hurting their potential free agency status later?

There a lot of questions in this post and not a lot of answers unfortunately. The six-man rotation will presumably help the 2015 Yankees but if the team likes the results they may want to go forward with it in 2016. How that line of progressive thinking may or may not hurt the Yankees going forward, specifically in free agency, is unclear and the unknown is generally scary.

Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Houston Astros 8/24

The New York Yankees are off an emotional weekend and a big series with the Cleveland Indians that didn't see enough victories for the Bronx Bombers. The team had all the breathing room they had in the American League East basically disappear so victories in this series with the Houston Astros are as important as they've ever been. The Yankees will send Nathan Eovaldi to the mound tonight to face off with Scott Feldman for the Astros. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on WPIX Channel 11, MLB Network and MLB TV.

Eovaldi has only faced the Astros twice in his career and owns a 1-0 record against the team that calls Eovaldi's birthplace home. Eovaldi had a perfect game into the 6th inning last start before earning his 13th win of the season behind Greg Bird's two home run game. 

Feldman has been one of the best Astros pitchers this season and has been good as of late allowing two earned runs or fewer in four of his past five starts. Feldman held down the Tampa Bay Rays in his last start holding them to just two runs in seven innings in a victory. 

MLB Network has picked up all three games for this series expecting a good three games head-to-head between these two teams. Eovaldi is searching for his 14th victory, Ivan Nova looks to bounce back from a terrible start and Michael Pineda returns off the disabled list for New York this series as the Yankees begin their quest with the six-man rotation. With Eovaldi on the mound tonight we should expect plenty of offense, some frustration and maybe a few more 102 MPH fastballs. Go Yankees!

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.

The Yankees and a Six-Man Rotation

Yesterday Joel Sherman reported that the Yankees are considering going to a six-man starting rotation in September, and possibly even into next season.

A six-man rotation has been brought up for years, but never seemed to get serious consideration until now. That hasn't kept people from arguing the case for or against it. In the past I've argued against it because of how important a consistent schedule seems to be for most pitchers. There's a good chance you've heard the phrase "creatures of habit".

Well, I decided to take a look at some numbers to see if it would be a good thing, and here's what I found...

From 2011 to 2013, CC Sabathia has given up a triple-slash of .255/.306/.395, which includes a career high of .272/.326/.445 in 2013. Seeing that batters have put up a line of .250/.307/.385 when CC has started on 5 days rest, which is what would happen with a six-man rotation, I think he'd be just fine. Not to mention how lowering his work total could be a good thing in order to keep him healthier for the remainder of his time in New York.

The next two guys are quite a bit younger, so I admit the numbers are harder to go by, but none-the-less here they are...

Ivan Nova has give up a batting line of .273/.338/.426 throughout his 4+ years in MLB. While starting on five days rest, that line sits at .272/.339/.465. I can't see what years may have skewed that mark, but seeing as how they're in line with his career totals, then I can't see it being a bad thing. Perhaps that extra rest would help get that triple-slash against down to the .258/.330/.348 we saw in 2013.

Here's where the age thing makes the stats almost pointless. But, like I said, I'm going to give them to you anyway. Throughout his career Michael Pineda has a batting line against of .211/.273/.340, while that line on five days of rest goes down to .185/.257/.292. I wouldn't get too excited about moving Pineda to the six-man rotation, as those numbers are based on a small sample size, but it makes me think that the extra rest shouldn't hurt Michael. Oh, and there's the health thing again.

As for Masahiro Tanaka, seeing as how pitchers in Nippon Professional Baseball only throw once a week, this could be a good thing for him too. And to continue the health theme, it would be nice to keep Tanaka away from the DL or... God forbid... the knife.

For the hell of it, I decided to see what Brandon McCarthy's numbers look like too. With how well he's thrown for the Yankees since coming to the team it wouldn't be at all surprising to see him back next season.

As for McCarthy's triple-slash against over the past three years, that number sits at .284/.318/.420... not something to brag about. However, if you see what he's done on five days of rest, that batting line drops to .258/.295/.380.

The 5th or 6th starter next year could very well be David Phelps and/or Shane Greene, who don't have nearly enough innings to make looking at their stats worth it. At least since I couldn't find how they pitched in the minors on 5 days rest.

No, it's not that I'm lazy. If you know where I can get those minor league splits, then please let me know.

In all, it looks like a 6-man rotation would make a heck of a lot of sense for the Yankees. Of course, seeing how things have gone, things that make a lot of sense don't tend to happen.