The New York Yankees have had a strong bullpen that is widely considered better than their rotation for most of the last few years. The 2024 edition, however, might not fit that description.
At the moment, the Yankees have six healthy starters and all of them are, or have been for an important portion of the 2024 campaign, great performers: Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman, Nestor Cortes, Luis Gil, and Clarke Schmidt.
Their bullpen is probably the closest thing they have to a liability right now, though. Mark Leiter Jr. has a 5.79 ERA, Scott Effross hasn’t been that sharp in his short MLB time this year, Jonathan Loaisiga is injured and Enyel De Los Santos was released.
Does it make sense, as a result, to feed the bullpen with some quality starters if the team’s overall depth allows it?
In the Yankees case, it does.
Cortes tossed 4.1 innings out of the bullpen on Saturday and looked marvelous in the process. Now, another rehabbing stater could potentially be sent to the bullpen, too: Cody Poteet.
Poteet could give the Yankees even more length and quality
Poteet has been out since mid-June while recovering from a triceps strain and conceded just a single run in 9.1 innings during his rehab assignment for the Somerset Patriots.
His rehab was bumped to Triple-A last week, and even though he struggled a bit with two runs and five hits in 2.2 frames, he tossed 57 pitches and is getting close to a return.
The Yankees staff could be full of guys who were once contributors in the rotation. It’s not necessarily a bad thing as these starters can provide length and quality, like Cortes did last weekend or Poteet can certainly do if called up.
If everybody is healthy, one of Cortes, Gil, or Schmidt will probably come out of the bullpen in the near future.
The Yanks could also call up Yoendrys Gomez, who pitched four strong frames in the same Triple-A game in which Poteet returned to Scranton last week.
Slowly, but steadily, the Yankees might be turning their bullpen into a de facto rotation. Considering the quality of their relievers and how good some of these starters can be, that might be such a bad thing.
