Alexander Wilson
The Yankees have spent so much time staring at the broken offense that the rotation’s decline has not been discussed enough.
Will Warren and Ryan Weathers were supposed to give the Yankees extra cover while Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, and Max Fried dealt with their own injury questions. Instead, the back half of the rotation has given them too many short outings, too much traffic, and too many reasons to price out the starter market.
Warren has made 18 starts with a 4.15 ERA, 3.98 FIP, and 1.3 WAR across 93.1 innings. Will Warren is still useful enough to keep in the conversation, but the shape of the season has changed. Early May looked like a young starter grabbing the job. July looks much less clean.
Weathers is in a similar spot. His 4.29 ERA and 4.06 FIP over 92.1 innings do not scream disaster, but the Yankees needed steadier innings than this. They needed routine five- and six-inning starts, not another question before every series.
Yankees need more certainty from the back end
The issue is not that Warren or Weathers has to be removed from the rotation tomorrow. That would be too simple.
The issue is trust. A contender can carry one volatile starter if the rest of the staff is stable. Carrying multiple question marks while waiting on injured arms is how a July plan gets expensive fast.
I still like Warren’s stuff enough to keep working with him. The splitter and fastball can play, and young starters are allowed to take some lumps. But the Yankees are not a development lab right now. They are chasing the division and trying to stop a skid from becoming the whole summer.
The deadline picture is getting harder
Brian Cashman does not have to chase the biggest name on the board. He does have to be honest about the floor of this rotation.
If Cole, Rodon, and Fried all line up cleanly, the Yankees can talk themselves into patience. If even one of those arms is delayed or limited, Warren and Weathers suddenly matter a lot more.
The uncomfortable part is simple. The Yankees might not need a frontline starter, but they probably need one dependable arm if the current group keeps putting the bullpen in bad spots.
More about:New York Yankees
