The New York Yankees reportedly offered Gerrit Cole a seven-year, $245 million dollar deal. They are the heavy favorites to land him however the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Anaheim Angels are expected to extend big contracts too. If the Yankees end up to be the one to sign Cole, they’ll immediately be one of the most dangerous rotations in all of Major League Baseball.
The rotation could look something like this if Cole ends up in pinstripes:
- Gerrit Cole
- Luis Severino
- James Paxton
- Masahiro Tanaka
- Domingo German (Given that he avoids suspension)
It’s always said that a team really using seven starters, so those would be the core five and Michael King and Deivi Garcia would be the remaining two.
Gerrit Cole is clearly the best pitcher in the Major Leagues, so having him as the ace would be monumental. But Luis Severino is also considered to be an ace when healthy. So it’s not really a one starter and two starter, it’s more like a 1A and 1B scenario, just like Cole and Verlander on the Houston Astros last season.
If James Paxton can pitch the way he did in the second half of last season, those first three starters are already dangerous. These are three guys that have high strikeout rates and could be the aces on most of the teams in the MLB.
Come postseason time, having Cole, Paxton, Severino, and postseason Tanaka is a huge gamechanger. This is something the New York Yankees didn’t have the past few seasons. These are all guys that fans and the team know will put up six or seven strong innings and it’s a good chance they’ll secure the win.
In my opinion, this is the last puzzle piece for the Yankees. It evident that the lack of starting pitching wasn’t getting the job done, so this is crucial for the Yankees as they continue to seek the number 28.