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The Yankees have mounted a rotation. Or a puzzle.
They now have the kind of starting pitcher that wins in the playoffs. Or the kind of physical stories that can get in the way of getting there.
Corey Kluber, Jameson Taillon and Luis Severino could form one of the best starting groups 2-4 in the majors starting August 1. and those of Severino come to one – for a total round.
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you can see the high ceiling the Yankees built – or just all the flaws.
In 2018, Kluber, Taillon and Severino combined to go 53-26 with a 3.15 ERA in 97 starts. Kluber has managed eight starts since then, only one for a set last year. Taillon did seven, none last year. Severino made five (two in the playoffs), none last year.
The Yankee’s tendency to double starting talent rather than safer innings and health repeated on Sunday when they made a four-point trade to the Pirates for Taillon, which missed last season after the operation. by Tommy John.
Isolated, the Yankees made the kind of trade that a competitor with a deep farming system can do with a rebuilding club. It sounded like what the Padres did earlier this month, also with Pittsburgh, to get another starter, Joe Musgrove, trading a good quantity, but not overwhelming quality. There is a Yankee risk in the lead bundle, not least that a few teams really like Miguel Yajure because he showed pitchability at such a young age (22) and Roasny Castillo is the big-armed lottery ticket kind. that finds its way into these guys. offers.
The Yanks had been trying for several months to get Musgrove and Taillon as a package. But Pittsburgh thought it could do better separately. The Yanks have therefore just won the starter which costs less ($ 2.25 million this year) and offers more capacity. Taillon, when he was last in good health for a full season, showed the promise that made him the second pick in the 2010 Draft between Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. He was 14-10 with a 3.20 ERA on 32 starts in 2018.
But it is not an isolated profession. Taillon is known to be returning from Tommy John’s surgery, as is Severino, and Jordan Montgomery has made 11 major league starts since his June 2018 Tommy John surgery. Kluber returns from tearing a muscle in his shoulder last year. Domingo German made his last major league appearance on September 18, 2019, before being suspended under MLB domestic violence protocols. Deivi Garcia and Clarke Schmidt have 40 ² / ₃ of major league innings combined.
It’s a solid talent inventory. But at the best of times, it’s hard to figure out how to get 1,450 major league innings in a 162-game season without sacrificing ability or burning a pen. Now do it a year after a pandemic 60-game season where no pitcher has come close to their normal workload and there hasn’t been a minor league season. Now do it with this group of Yankee starters with Michael King for more depth. The line will be between formidable and terrifying.
The Yankees will only get Severino back a few months after the start of the season and have no good feelings about the mass innings of anyone besides Gerrit Cole. It will take massages to find respites with six-man rotations and turns to keep non-Coles from getting too extended – the puzzle.
In 2019, the Yankees won 103 games with only one starter (Masahiro Tanaka) qualifying for the 182-innings ERA title. JA Happ had 161 ¹ / ₃, James Paxton 150 ² / ₃, German 143 and CC Sabathia 107 ¹ / ₃. So it can be done, especially since the Yanks are planning to have a strong offense and a bullpen again. Plus, they haven’t hit the best of their prospect base, so if suddenly a Kyle Hendricks or a German Marquez or Luis Castillo is available during the season, they’re in a position to negotiate again. And who knows even with the COVID-19 pandemic if there will be a 162 game season this year. The fewer games there are, the better it is for this Yankee spin to be maximized.
Maybe the Yanks continue to add to the group. But it’s not easy. The $ 2.25 million salary in 2021 has made Taillon even more appealing as the Yanks move closer to the luxury tax threshold of $ 210 million, which is their opening budget for the 2021 season.
So the spinning pieces you see now are probably what you get to start the season. With Taillon, the group has become both more talented and more tenuous.
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