Alexander Wilson
Thirteen days into the regular season, the New York Yankees have designated right-handed pitcher Cade Winquest for assignment, ending what was a brief and unproductive stint on the major league roster. He made zero appearances. He contributed nothing to the team’s 8-4 record. He occupied a spot on a 26-man roster that, through most of the past two weeks, felt like it could have been better used.
I want to be fair to Winquest because the guy has legitimate minor league credentials. His career numbers show a 25-year-old who posted a 3.99 ERA across 106 innings last season in the Cardinals system, reaching Double-A with a 9.34 strikeout rate and a ground ball rate north of 48%. Those are not empty numbers. That is a pitcher who misses bats, keeps the ball in the park, and induces weak contact when hitters do connect. The spring training ERA of 7.20 over 10 innings was ugly, but spring results from a Rule 5 pick working on new stuff are not the most reliable indicator of what a pitcher actually is.
Why the Roster Decision Looked Questionable
The Yankees claimed Winquest off the Cardinals in December, and per Rule 5 rules, he had to stay on the active roster all season or be offered back to his original club. That is the structure that made this tricky from day one. The Yankees knew exactly what the Rule 5 framework demanded and added him anyway, which meant they were committing a roster spot to a pitcher with one spring training start to his name in the organization before a single regular-season pitch had been thrown.
During the first two weeks, the Yankees’ bullpen got stretched, Paul Blackburn gave up a walk-off in Seattle, and the bottom of the lineup cost them two games against Oakland. Having an extra legitimate arm available, someone with actual major league exposure rather than a Rule 5 gamble, might have changed how Boone was forced to deploy his bullpen options in a few of those tight situations. The Yankees chose Winquest over that flexibility, and thirteen days later they are returning him to St. Louis without getting anything out of the decision.
What Comes Next
The expectation is that Luis Gil gets promoted to make his first start of the season against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night. Gil has been getting stretched out in the minors and should be ready to give the Yankees five innings, which is what they need from a rotation that has been relying heavily on a bullpen currently without a true long man.
Adding Gil solves more than just the Winquest spot. It gives the rotation another legitimate arm and reduces the burden on the bullpen during a stretch of the schedule that is about to get more demanding. Weathers, Warren, Schlittler, and Fried have been excellent, but four starters covering a full rotation turn is not sustainable without sacrificing bullpen depth in games where the starter exits early.
Whether the Winquest decision made sense at the time of the signing is a separate conversation. What Thursday made clear is that it did not work, and now the Yankees move forward without a Rule 5 experiment taking up space on their active roster.
More about:New York Yankees
