In recent weeks, New York Yankees‘ general manager Brian Cashman has raved about the team’s pitching depth and has implied that they may not need to add to the already existing options in the organization. However, that changed over the weekend.
The Yankees’ first priority remains re-signing second baseman DJ LeMahieu, who has been the best player by WAR in the last two campaigns. But after that (some would argue that even before that) the organization has to find certainty when it comes to the starting rotation.
The New York Yankees lost three starters to free agency: James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka, and J.A. Happ. Luis Severino is not coming back before June and Domingo German hasn’t pitched in the majors in more than a year.
On Sunday, Cashman had an appearance on Sirius XM’s MLB Network Radio and said “went through New York’s young arms — including Luis Severino, Domingo Germán, Deivi GarcÃa and Jordan Montgomery — that possess plenty of upside, but acknowledged that the pinstripes could use a veteran presence or two to stabilize the rotation in 2021.â€
The Yankees don’t want to find themselves scrambling for arms
His complete quote, according to MLB.com:
“I think we have a framework at the very least to fall back on, but I definitely feel like we need to try to address more certain innings. You don’t want to be in a position where you’re scrambling. … No one ever wants to be in a scrambling mode, because then it dominoes into your bullpen and can have an adverse negative effect on you. … If I can add to what I have sooner than later, all the better, but if I have to wait to do it in-season, so be it. We might have enough here before us that’s just untested.”
After Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery, the Yankees have German, Deivi Garcia, and Clarke Schmidt as the projected rotation as things stand today.
Several arms still sit in the free agent pool, such as Trevor Bauer, Jake Odorizzi, Corey Kluber, and more. Others, like Zack Wheeler, Sonny Gray, Luis Castillo, and Joe Musgrove can be had via trade.