The Yankees assembled a rotation. Or a puzzle.
Now they have the kind of launch that wins in the postseason. Or the kind of physical stories that can undermine getting there.
Corey Kluber, Jameson Taillon and Luis Severino could form one of the best groups of beginners no. 2-4 of the May 1 majorities. and those from Severino reach one – for a total half.
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then you can see the high ceiling built by the Yankees – or just all the flaws.
In 2018, Kluber, Taillon and Severino combined to go 53-26 with an ERA 3.15 in 97 starts. Since then, Kluber has managed eight starts, only one for a half last year. Taillon made seven, none last year. Severino won five (two in the playoffs), none last year.
The Yankee’s tendency to double the starting talent rather than the safer half and health was repeated on Sunday, when they ended a four-way exchange for Pirates for Taillon, who missed last season after Tommy John’s surgery.
In isolation, the Yankees did a kind of trade that a competitor with a deep farming system can do with a rebuilding club. It’s similar to what the parents did earlier this month, also with Pittsburgh, to get another starter, Joe Musgrove, trading good quantities, but not overwhelming quality. There is a risk of a Yankee in the perspective pack, especially the fact that some teams really like Miguel Yajure because he has shown that he can be played at such a young age (22), and Roasny Castillo is the kind of ticket lottery with big arms that finds its way into these types. of offers.
The Yanks have been trying for months to get Musgrove and Taillon as a package. But Pittsburgh thought he could do better. So Yanks has just landed the starter that cost less ($ 2.25 million this year) and offers more capacity. Taillon, when he was healthy for a full season, showed promise that made him the second pick in the 2010 draft between Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. He was 14-10 years old with an ERA of 3.20 over 32 starts in 2018.
But this is not an isolated job. It is done knowing that Taillon is returning from the Tommy John operation, as well as Severino, and Jordan Montgomery made 11 major league starts from the Tommy John operation in June 2018. Kluber returns from tearing his shoulder muscle last year. Domingo German made his last major league appearance on September 18, 2019, before being suspended under MLB’s domestic abuse protocols. Deivi Garcia and Clarke Schmidt have combined 40 innings in the major leagues.
This is a powerful inventory of talent. But under the best of circumstances, figuring out how to get to 1,450 major league innings in a 162-game season is hard to do without sacrificing ability or burning a bullpen. Now, do it a year after a 60-game pandemic season, when no pitcher came close to their normal workload and there was no minor league season. Now, do it with this group of Yankee beginners, with Michael King thrown for extra depth. The line will be good between terrible and terrifying.
The Yankees will not recover Severino until a few months into the season and have no good feelings about bulk innings from anyone other than Gerrit Cole. It will take massage to find breaks with rotations of six people and jump over rows to prevent the over-expansion of non-sheets – the puzzle.
In 2019, the Yankees won 103 games, with a single starter (Masahiro Tanaka) qualifying for the ERA title in 182 innings. JA Happ had 161 ¹ / ₃, James Paxton 150 ² / ₃, German 143 and CC Sabathia 107 ¹ /. So it can be done, especially since the Yanks project will have a strong crime and will be bullpen again. In addition, they have not achieved their best from their perspective, so if suddenly a Kyle Hendricks or German Marquez or Luis Castillo will be available during the season, they are positioned to deal again. And who knows even with the COVID-19 pandemic if it will be a season of 162 games this year. The fewer games, the better for this Yankee rotation to be maximized.
Maybe the Yankees continue to add to the group. But this is not easy. The $ 2.25 million salary for 2021 has made Taillon even more attractive as the Yanks head toward the $ 210 million luxury tax threshold, which is their opening budget for the 2021 season.
Thus, the rotating parts you see now are possible what you will get to open the season. With Taillon, the group became both more talented and weaker.