The Yankees have had one of the strongest performances from their pitching staff start to finish that they’ve gotten in recent memory, flaunting a wealth of depth for a rotation that has consistently had at least one member missing from the rotation the entire season. Whether it was Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, or now the latest missing member in Ryan Weathers, its felt like the team has been waiting on a missing piece to arrive at every moment to put them over the edge. Despite that, the arms
that have been available have more than delivered, as each of those four have largely thrived when called upon and Cam Schlittler has been shoving since Opening Weekend. The results: New York is neck-and-neck for the best fWAR of any starting rotation in baseball, ranking third with 14.1 and sitting a mere .2 away from first-place Milwaukee.
However, potential cracks have begun to show. Not from their performance, which has remained elite even through a lengthy run of weak run support for the entire staff that kept them afloat for over a month. However, their health which has never been optimal has started to stress test them, taking Weathers and Fried out of commission within the same week to force the team to reach into their minor-league depth. Rodón has only recently come back from the IL himself and is still building back up to a normal pitch count, meaning they’re down two starters and limited on one of their four regulars remaining putting additional stress on a bullpen that has placed a significant workload on their premier relievers. Consider that Will Warren, who has mostly been fine for the role he plays as the fifth starter, is typically a five-and-dive type of pitcher and the pressure for the top end pitchers to be on their A-game every fifth day only intensifies.
The offense is finally looking up, as the infusion of George Lombard Jr. and a resurgent Spencer Jones combined with upswings from Austin Wells and Trent Grisham as well as the return of Cody Bellinger have given them a greater ceiling than three runs in a game. It comes as the staff desperately could use a shoulder to lean on, having carried the team to mediocrity through the start of summer when they couldn’t hit worth a lick but still managed to play to a roughly .500 record. Fried is expected to be back relatively soon, as his bone bruise was deemed to be a minor concern needing only the minimum 15-day stint on the IL, but Weathers will likely be missing until the final weeks of the season and may only be limited to relief duties when he does return. Any other hits at this point would severely strain an already taxed segment of the roster, and as previously mentioned a majority of the staff has dealt with at least some kind of injury concern during the year. So with all that in mind, can they make it through the stretch run in a fit-enough form to compete in October?
Thankfully, the emergence of Schlittler as the team ace has been a godsend for the Yankees. A homegrown Cy Young contender in his second year in the big leagues, Schlittler has taken the ball and ran with it from the first series of the season and stayed a consistent frontrunner for the award since then. His 158 innings pitched are a new career-high at any level, meaning he is pushing the boundaries a bit going forward, but there’s only a handful of regular season starts left to make to stress test his arm. The team shuffled their rotation order around a bit this week, likely skipping his starting spot on Wednesday to use one of their Triple-A callups or a bullpen game before starting him against the rival Red Sox this weekend instead, and little optimizations like that will aid their push to keep the rest of their arms fully healthy. On top of that, Gerrit Cole’s injury history mostly relates to last season as he underwent Tommy John surgery before rehabbing and returning midseason this year. Since shaking off the rust Cole has looked much more like the ace of old that headlined this staff, and with fresher legs under him he should be fine to push himself a bit down the line here soaking up an extra inning here and there.
Fried and Rodón are more of a question mark, as both have underwent multiple IL stints this year (and Rodón started the year shelved after offseason surgery to remove bone spurs in his elbow). But if Fried’s injury can be trusted to be minor as the team has described, then the team should at minimum have three elite pitchers to run out in any postseason series they line up for. They’ll need all hands on deck to finish the year strong though, as they currently sit sandwiched between the Rays and Red Sox in a race for the best record in the American League and as they saw the last two years firsthand, getting to skip that Wild Card Round and await the winner of one of those two teams can set up a strong run to the Fall Classic. Another setback with a rotation member could easily be the difference between being able to close the gap and settling for one of those Wild Card slots, but despite the recent hits they’re still in a good position to compete. The tools are still there for them to push for the AL East crown, they just need the hits to stop coming at some point.
The Yankees have a new foe arriving into town with the Astros arriving, and Nick starts us off with a series preview going over the pitching matchups to expect. Sam then wishes Adam Warren a happy birthday and remembers his days as one of the most relied on arms in the early Baby Bomber bullpens. I’ll be back to cover the Rivalry Roundup as the East stayed winning with the Yankees inactive, Michael goes over the latest week down in the minors as the rookie ball leagues wrap up, and Peter dives into Ben Rice’s crucial at-bat in Sunday’s win over the Jays to break the game over.
Today’s Matchup:
New York Yankees vs. Houston Astros
Time: 7:05 p.m. EST
TV: YES Network, Space City Home Network
Venue: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY
