A roster can look dominant on paper and still keep a front office awake at night. That’s where the 2026 New York Yankees sit with their pitching staff. You scroll through the names and think this group should bulldoze its way through the American League. Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Cam Schlittler, Luis Gil, Will Warren, Ryan Yarbrough, Elmer Rodriguez, and Clarke Schmidt form a collection most teams would love to borrow from. But talent isn’t the same thing as availability, and availability is the thing the Yankees can’t quite count on.
A Rotation Built on Talent and Timetables
The Yankees know how good their rotation can be when everyone is healthy. They also know how far away that ideal scenario is. Cole still has the shadow of Tommy John surgery trailing behind him. With reports suggesting a return sometime between May and June, the Yankees can’t plan on him being ready for Opening Day or maybe even the first chunk of the season. Rodon is on a similar track after elbow surgery to remove a bone spur, and his early-season status remains shaky. Schmidt, meanwhile, isn’t a spring solution at all. He profiles more as a second-half addition, one of those reinforcements fans like to point to but can’t bet the house on.
Those are three major pieces of the Yankees’ blueprint that won’t be in place when the first pitch of 2026 is thrown. It leaves the early part of the year feeling like a bridge they’ll have to build while crossing.
The Early-Season Reality
In the meantime, the Yankees will lean on Fried, Schlittler, Warren, Gil, Yarbrough, and the young and still-uncertain Rodriguez. That group has upside, no doubt, but the lack of margin for error is alarming. Spring training has a way of turning depth charts into wish lists. All it takes is one setback or a mild strain to reshape a team’s plans.
And when you look at Rodriguez, you see someone the organization likes but hasn’t fully tested. If he’s not ready for big-league responsibility in April, the Yankees could be staring at just five trusted arms before the season even starts. Five isn’t enough when you’re covering six months and waiting on stars to get healthy.
Why an Addition Feels Inevitable
That’s why New York didn’t just re-sign Yarbrough and call it a day. His contract is friendly, and his style is useful, but he’s a supplemental piece. The Yankees know they need more than that. They’ve been linked for weeks to Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai, and that rumor says more about their mindset than any public comment from Brian Cashman ever could. They need someone they can drop into the rotation without holding their breath.
If it’s not Imai, it has to be someone of similar caliber. A minor-league deal type isn’t going to stabilize anything. Not with Cole, Rodon, and Schmidt on staggered timelines. Not with so many innings waiting to be covered before the summer arrives.
This version of the Yankees isn’t lacking talent. It’s lacking certainty. And until that gap closes, the smartest thing they can do is act like a team that understands its window is open and its staff needs reinforcement. The problem is clear enough. Now it’s on the Yankees to decide how aggressively they want to solve it.
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