The return of Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt to the New York Yankees‘ active roster last weekend was an extremely positive development, to say the least. Between the two right-handers, they tossed 10.2 scoreless innings against the Chicago Cubs on Friday and Saturday.
To accommodate all the returning pieces, the Yankees had Nestor Cortes follow Schmidt on Saturday, and both topped four frames to keep their arms fresh.
Cortes, who has a solid 3.97 ERA in 163.1 innings, didn’t hide his disappointment about being sent to the bullpen for the weekend’s game. He explicitly said he was “upset”, that he had “been the workhorse here,” that he had to switch his routine, and “now they do this”.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone didn’t have an issue with Cortes speaking out, and did say that “clearly, he wants to be starting, and certainly there’s a case for that. He’s now going back into the rotation.”
What will the Yankees do?
One can’t help but wonder, however, how the Yankees will fit everybody in the rotation. Boone said Cortes will be returning to the staff, but either somebody else will be skipped or used in relief or the team will implement a six-man rotation for the foreseeable future.
There isn’t much clarity about the Yankees’ plans, but we do know that Carlos Rodon and Marcus Stroman will start on Monday and Tuesday.
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Cortes’ day would be Thursday, because Luis Gil would probably go on Wednesday. The problem, for the Yankees, is that the left-hander is now in the same day as Schmidt. What will Boone do?
Cortes was probably fine with the bullpen assignment that day (well, fine-ish), but the Yanks could risk an internal issue if they take the ball from him again even if he ultimately said he would do the best for the team.
What will the team do? We shall find out in a few days.
Or hours.
