Ryan Garcia
Despite an eye-opening start from Luis Gil to finish his Grapefruit League run, the Yankees have opted to exclude him from the rotation and roll with a four-man group.
The schedule doesn’t require them to use a fifth starter until the middle of April and it would benefit them to have their guys stick to their throwing schedules early in the season.
It’s the group that the Yankees opened camp with, a surprise given how injury-prone pitchers are this time of year, but the hope is that this group is just a temporary solution to their rotation questions.
Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon are expected to return this season and there are prospects scratching and clawing to make the leap into the big leagues, but what do these four arms have to say about that?
Is this a good group? Should fans be worried? Let’s break down each of the four Opening Day rotation arms.
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Can Max Fried Deliver Another Ace-Like Season in 2026?
You could argue that 2025 was the best season of Max Fried’s career as the left-hander set a new career-high in innings pitched, anchoring the top of a very fluid rotation.
When injuries created chaos, Fried gave the Yankees much-needed stability while making some changes to become one of the nastiest pitchers in the game.
By tweaking his fastball to throw both a four-seamer and cutter while improving his sinker, he jumped to a 109 Stuff+ in Eno Sarris’ model.
The excellent pitch scores and sub-3.00 ERA in three of his last four seasons speak for themselves, I don’t think there’s much I have to say about the lanky left-hander.
He’s an ace and has been for quite some time, few pitchers in the sport have been as effective as he has over the last five years and I expect him to remain a frontline guy once more in 2026.
What is Cam Schlittler’s Follow Up To a Stellar Rookie Season?
Cam Schlittler was one of the best young pitchers in the game last season and looked like an ace down the stretch, punching their ticket to the American League Division Series with a historically dominant start against the Red Sox.
He’s come into camp throwing hard, displaying improved shapes, and throwing a new slider that could help him collect more whiffs against right-handed batters.
The pitch I’m most impressed with isn’t his 97-99 MPH fastball but rather his 93-96 MPH cutter, which has a lot of similarities to the cutter that Corbin Burnes threw in Milwaukee.
His Stuff+ is up seven points from last season without an unsustainable leap in fastball velocity, I believe there’s a special talent here that could produce an ace-like season.
My biggest question pertains to his back; has the pain subsided or is he managing a strain from outing to outing that could turn into a bigger deal by the All-Star Break?
Velocity jumps do increase risk of injury, and Schlittler’s durable history on the mound could be tested throughout the course of the 2026 season.
I’m a believer in his stuff and ultimately believe this is one of the most talented pitchers in the entire sport, I just wonder about the final inning total for him when the dust settles in November.
We should be treating Cam Schlittler like a no. 2 starter, he’s earned the distinction and there’s a real chance that he performs like a real ace in 2026 with the momentum built up from last season.
Does Will Warren Have the Chops to Become a Mid-Rotation Starter?
Will Warren quietly had an excellent Spring Training where he was efficient and effective, and while I don’t care that his ERA was below 2.00 in Grapefruit League play, I do care that his Stuff+ is up by 10 points.
You might be curious about why there’s such a sharp spike in that metric given that his shapes and velocity aren’t too different from last year, it actually stems from a small change in mound positioning.
He’s creating much sharper angles because he’s standing on the third-base side of the rubber, widening his release point by nearly a foot and making his pitches much tougher to track.
Some of the issues that plagued Warren last season included left-handed hitters, a high volume of damage contact, and length in starts, if he can improve 1-2 of those issues I think he could be a sub-4.00 ERA pitcher in 2026.
If you can get about 170-180 innings of a 3.95 ERA from Will Warren in 2026 this rotation is going to be in a very good spot, and there’s a lot riding on this year for him.
Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole could both be back before June rolls around, Carlos Lagrange and Elmer Rodriguez look like they could help this rotation right now, and he’ll have to compete with Ryan Weathers and Luis Gil all year.
Will Warren needs to make himself indispensible to this Yankees’ rotation in 2026, and he has the runway to do exactly that in 2026.
Why Did the Yankees Go With Ryan Weathers As Their Final Starter?
An ERA over 11 during Spring Training might lead you to believe that Ryan Weathers is a horrific option for the final spot in this rotation, especially given his shaky MLB track record.
I’d first like to point out that the Yankees do not care about ERA this time of year, and teams don’t care much about ERA in even full-season samples when making roster decisions (Lucas Giolito still doesn’t have a team!).
Let’s look at what teams actually care about this time of year such as Stuff+, where Weathers is up to a 116 during Spring Training thanks in-part to tweaks he made to his sinker and slider.
The combination of excellent velocity, good movement, and a funky armslot makes him a breakout candidate for 2026, but there are big-time questions about the left-hander’s availability.
He has not been able to stay healthy throughout his time with the Padres and Marlins and it is now on him to prove that the Yankees won’t have to shuttle up starters to take his place mid-season.
There’s also a real world where misses time and one of Rodriguez or Lagrange just snatches his spot for good given how those two have looked as prospects.
All of the pressure that Warren is facing to remain in the rotation exists for Weathers too, but I do think he has more upside as a reliever due to the power fastballs and deep pitch mix.
Plenty of fans are fading Ryan Weathers and I can understand why, but his massive improvements in pitch quality, high groundball rates, and good K-BB% numbers tell me that he could be a really good starter this season.
Besides, when healthy in 2024 and 2025 he’s produced a 3.74 ERA and 4.00 SIERA across 25 starts, it wouldn’t really shock me if he produced a similar ERA in 2026.
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