We’re three days into February, and by now you’re likely familiar with our new format to kickstart our days. The Yankee rotation was one of the focal points of the offseason right after the No. 1 priority of dealing with the outfield, and while they ultimately didn’t do much outside of adding some depth arms the starting staff will look a little different in 2026.
So with that being said, who will end up performing the best out of all of the Yankees’ options to start this season? They’re getting back
their staff ace Gerrit Cole who could theoretically slide right back into the role, but there’s a couple of caveats. First, Cole is coming off of Tommy John surgery that cost him the entirety of last year, and he missed the first half of 2024 as well — you can hope that he merely avoided the surgery that he inevitably needed the next year, but none of that bodes well for Cole’s durability in the back half of his contract. So Cole is entering 2026 needing to get back into game form after a long time on the shelf, and he’s also going to miss at least the first month of the season to complete his recovery. That isn’t going to help his counting stats for an end of the year comparison, even if he does jump right back into Cy Young form when he does return to the mound.
That gives Max Fried a decent shot at taking the mantle for another year. The team’s big offseason signing last year delivered in Cole’s absence, finishing in fourth-place in the Cy Young voting after posting a 2.86 ERA and 4.8 fWAR over 195.1 innings. He’s the frontrunner to be the most valuable arm on the staff again as he enters 2026 healthy, though his performance last year was just a touch below the best of his career so it may be difficult for him to replicate that level of success in back-to-back seasons.
Similar to Cole, Carlos Rodón is starting the year on the shelf, giving him a bit of a disadvantage after he needed surgery in the offseason to remove some bone spurs. He is coming off of his best year in pinstripes in 2025, however, so he can’t be fully discounted should momentum carry him to new heights in his fourth season in the Bronx. Finally, the dark horse candidate to showcase a monster year is Cam Schlittler, the team’s breakout star at the end of last season. Schlittler impressed in his rookie campaign, posting a 2.96 ERA and earning 1.3 fWAR in just 73 innings of work, and his big coming out party came in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series where he delivered eight shutout innings to secure the victory. With the prospect of a full year on the roster coming up, Schlittler is poised for a strong sophomore season, and the delayed starts for some of the stalwarts of the rotation could guide him to the top should he remain healthy.
There’s no bad answer to have as your No. 1 entering October based on the resumes we’ve seen from each of them, but the tantalizing potential of a homegrown ace makes me lean me towards predicting Schlittler to top the list. Who would you say has the best chance to lead the pack this year? Let us know below.
On the site today, we’ve got Nolan running through the state of the Yankees’ outfield depth entering this year, with the scale tilting heavily towards the major league and upper minors side of the system. Matt wishes a happy birthday to a man with an incredible name in Chicken Hawks, Jeff previews Cody Bellinger’s season with him back in the fold in left field, and Peter reflects on the strange circumstances that led to Rafael Soriano’s signing with the Yankees after the 2010 season.
