Larry Rothschild and the Next Nathan “Eovolving” Eovaldi

Larry Rothschild and the New York Yankees have drawn rave reviews from their fans and from notable opinions around the league for their work with Nathan Eovaldi in 2015.  After leading the league in hits allowed in 2014 while with the Miami Marlins Eovaldi came back and actually gave up more hits per nine innings, although the length of his starts were significantly reduced skewing this stat a bit, and despite giving up more hits not only did his ground balls and strike out numbers go up but so did his win total. The Yankees may be looking at striking gold once again this offseason or relatively soon by adding another “project” type starter with youth and upside on his side so could the next Nathan “Eovolving” Eovaldi be for the New York Yankees?

If you’re going to fit the mold of a Yankees starter and Eovaldi you’re going to have to keep your walks down, your strikeouts high and your groundballs even higher. Sounds simple enough on paper but not as many pitchers do it as you would expect. When a pitcher does this consistently they are called aces and they are generally not young, controllable or even available. See David Price or Jordan Zimmermann for an example. So who is young, controllable, said to be available and fits the starting pitching molds set above?

Carlos Carrasco is one and is signed through the 2020 season. There have already been rumors of Carrasco being traded this winter by Cleveland and New York is said to be dangling Brett Gardner to the Indians. Danny Salazar also fits this most, just don’t trade them Aaron Judge.

Jose Quintana also fits the most and is also signed through the 2020 season with the Chicago White Sox. The problem is the two most attractive trade pieces the Yankees have, Gardner and Andrew Miller, do not presumable interest the White Sox.

Just like Eovaldi the Yankees could buy low on a struggling National League East pitcher with a bad stat sheet and record for the previous season. Enter Shelby Miller of the Atlanta Braves. They are in total rebuild, make the call.

New York reportedly talked to Seattle about a deal involving Brett Gardner which could have brought back left-hander James Paxton to the Bronx. Paxton has an injury history that scares me but a delivery, motion and repertoire that reminds me, and others, of Andy Pettitte. That is intriguing enough on its own.

The Houston Astros like Andrew Miller and still need a bullpen, would that come at the cost of either Collin McHugh or Lance McCuller Jr.? If I’m the Yankees I certainly hope so.

Cincinnati is rebuilding and I would love for the Yankees to take Raisel Iglesias off the Reds hands. I can remember clamoring for him when he defected from Cuba and Cashman has the opportunity to right a wrong. Some are calling Iglesias “El Duque II.” They sure know how to intrigue me, don’t they?

Tyson Ross of the San Diego Padres would be nice, so would Andrew Cashner truth be told, but AJ Preller is unlikely to make them available. Would the next best thing be Tyson’s brother and current Washington Nationals starter Joe Ross? Washington would love Andrew Miller and may even be interested in Gardner to replace Denard Span. This deal could work, although I could see Cashman acquiring Gio Gonzalez before Ross unfortunately.

Keep in mind, at least as far as I know, that New York is not linked to any of these starting pitchers and in most cases these pitchers are not openly being shopped by their teams. I was merely looking to get together a list of comparable pitchers to Nathan Eovaldi to present to Mr. Cashman, who you all know reads my work, just in case he wants to find lightning in a bottle one more time.