The Yankees have made four turns through their main quartet of starting pitchers that were rostered for Opening Day now, with Luis Gil set to make his second start in the full rotation later tonight. The arms have done a good job dealing through the first month or so of the season, with little hiccups here and there including a not-so-great start to this Angels series, but in general they’ve been the highlight of the roster.
So with the rotation being the catalyst of the team’s success, the Yankees
are surely making notes of what they’ve gotten from their staff as the return of Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón gets closer and closer. Certain names are definitely safe, but for our purposes today let’s take a look at the rotation at large and decide who’s been leading the pack rather than worrying about who might get knocked out and slid into the bullpen.
Any discussion starts with the team’s Opening Day starter, Max Fried, and how he’s followed up on an excellent beginning to his pinstriped career. Fried leads the way in the rotation with a 1.93 ERA and 28 innings pitched, delivering on run prevention and saving the bullpen’s energy for other outings. Cam Schlittler lines up as the second in turn, but Schlittler’s sophomore season has shown even more promise than his rookie offerings. He owns a 2.49 ERA and has pitched 21.2 innings, but he’s struck out 30 batters already while walking just one and has the highest fWAR on the team at 1.3. His FIP is even more remarkable, as he has pitched to a miniscule 0.53 mark showing that he’s gotten a bit unlucky during his starts.
The back half of the rotation features Will Warren and Ryan Weathers, two pitchers that definitively stand a step below but have delivered quality results nonetheless. Warren owns a 2.45 ERA on the season, but has pitched in slightly less innings at 18.1 and has struck out 20 batters to six walks. Weathers has had the toughest sledding with a 4.29 ERA, but he delivered a gutsy eight innings of work earlier in the month against the A’s and has struck out the second-most batters on the staff at 28. He’s also had the mental stress of not getting a single run of support from the lineup while he’s pitching, for whatever that’s worth.
So between Fried and Schlittler or Warren and Weathers, the question becomes whether you value the raw results of putting up zeroes on the scoreboard or the process that got them through the outing. It’d be easy to say that Fried has maintained his top spot that the organization tagged him with due to his team-best ERA, but the gap between his and Schlittler’s is miniscule at this point while Schlittler has completely overpowered most of the hitters he’s faced and Fried hasn’t found a groove with his putaway pitch. Meanwhile, Warren has been delivering a solidly consistent outing every time his name is called, but Weathers has shown the potential to go far based on the swings and misses he’s generated. Overall, I think the results lead me to line up Schlitter as the team’s best pitcher thus far, followed closely by Fried, with Warren third and Weathers fourth, but there’s a lot to like from all four of them. Would you arrange them differently if push came to shove and the team needed to line up their best to match another team’s best? Let us know down below, and give us your thoughts on how each has impressed in the early going.
Today on the site Sam leads off with a look at Will Warren specifically, examining what the Yankees are getting out of their second-year starter. Peter has a double-feature, first giving us the Rivalry Roundup covering all of the key games from Tuesday before getting into Trent Grisham’s clutch game-tying home run on Monday in our At-Bat of the Week. Then Jonathan gives some birthday love to the Cole that came to the franchise long before Gerrit in King Cole, and later in the afternoon Scott dives into the latest from down in Scranton as the RailRiders split their first home series of the year.
Today’s Matchup
New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Angels
Time: 7:05 p.m. EST
Video: Amazon Prime Video, FanDuel Sports Network West
Venue: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY
