After not winning another championship and even losing the East, the New York Yankees find themselves in a pitching mess this offseason. Other than new pitching ace Gerrit Cole, the Yankees pitching last season was at best inconstant and at times abysmal. As it happened, those pitchers are gone off the payroll. Masahiro Tanaka, James Paxton, and J.A. Happ all reached free agency and were not offered a qualifying offer to stay with the team. That loosens up about $50 million to help fix the Yankees pitching problems.
There are a lot of free-agent pitchers for the Yankees to choose from, but the best on that list, Trevor Bauer, Mike Minor, Jake Odorizzi, will probably come at a price the New York Yankees aren’t going to want to spend. Probably Charlie Morton is the most attractive starting pitcher on the list. He is 37 years old with a career 7.0 WAR, which is pretty impressive.
Morton is off a $30 million two year contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays declined his 2021 option. The big draw for the Yankees with Morton is that he is a successful postseason pitcher. In the regular season, the Rays won five of his nine starts. But where he shone was in the postseason; he gave up just six earned runs over four games. He beat the Yankees and beat the Houston Astros, his old team, in two games. He did flop in his World Series appearance against the Dodgers; five of his six earned runs given up were in that game.
Morton could be a good fit for the Yankees and would be fairly economical; he would probably demand a one year salary similar to the James Paxton earned, $12 million. The only question is if Morton will retire or play another year. He hasn’t tipped his hat to that, but before the 2020 season, he said it would depend on how he pitched during the season and how he felt healthwise.
The New York Yankees may have to look to the trade market as most of the other free agents aren’t much of an upgrade from Paxton or Happ. Their first free-agent signing just may be their own Masahiro Tanaka; he is the fifth-best pitcher out there. But even the Yankees realize he is not the pitcher he once was, but he is mostly reliable, and the Yankees know he can pitch under the bright lights of Yankee Stadium. But for the Yankees to sign him, he will have to accept an annual salary of far less than the $23 million he earned this year.
Two other options the Yankees could look at are on the trade market. Lance Lynn has pitched for the New York Yankees before. He is with the Texas Rangers. Like Tanaka, the Yankees know he isn’t bothered by the New York spotlight. The Rangers have been willing to work with the Yankees in the past.
Another possibility is Joe Musgrove of the Pirates. The Pirates had a horrible season and looking to gut the team again and might be willing to give up Musgrove. Musgrove has often been compared to Masahiro Tanaka but is four years younger; he will be 28 on opening day. After a stint on the IL, he returned, striking out a full third of batters he faced and allowing the weakest contact of any starter in baseball.
The bottom line is that these pitchers are mid-rotation pitchers. The Yankees still need a number two starter behind Gerrit Cole. The obvious choice would be spending for Trevor Bauer. If the Yankees don’t do that, you may see Domingo German as that number two starter if Hal Steinbrenner decides to take him back. Midseason or before the Yankees hope to get Luis Severino back, after rehabbing from Tommy John Surgery.
If the Yankees decide to go big, it will produce a rotation that would produce a dream rotation of Cole, Bauer, German, Severino, and a fifth spot that could include Montgomery, Garcia, or Schmidt. The one thing we know for sure is that it will be a while before the 2021 Yankee pitching rotation becomes clear.