The Yankees set up a rotation. Or a puzzle.
They now have the kind of initial pitch that wins in the postseason. Or the kind of physical history that can hurt getting there.
Corey Kluber, Jameson Taillon and Luis Severino can form one of the best groups of Nos beginners. 2-4 in major competitions on August 1. Or the Yankees may be hunting the starters by the July 31 deadline, because Kluber 2020 starts more in Taillon and Severino’s in one – for a total inning.
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then you can see the high ceiling built by the Yankees – or just all the flaws.
In 2018, Kluber, Taillon and Severino combined to go 53-26 with an ERA of 3.15 in 97 matches. Kluber has managed eight games since then, only one for an entry last year. Taillon made seven, none in the past year. Severino made five (two in the playoffs), none last year.
The Yankees’ tendency to double their starting talent instead of safer entries and safer health was repeated on Sunday when they completed a four-way switch to Pirates for Taillon, who lost last season after Tommy John’s surgery.
Isolated, the Yankees made the kind of exchange that an opponent with a deep agricultural system can make with a club under reconstruction. It is similar to what the Fathers did earlier this month, also with Pittsburgh, to get another holder, Joe Musgrove, negotiating a good amount, but not an overwhelming quality. There is a risk of Yankee in the prospecting package, notably that some teams really like Miguel Yajure because he has shown himself to be pitchability so young (22) and Roasny Castillo is the type of big-arm lottery ticket that finds its way into these types of Business.
The Yankees had been trying to get Musgrove and Taillon as a package for a few months. But Pittsburgh believed it could do better separately. Therefore, the Yankees have just gotten the holder that costs less ($ 2.25 million this year) and offers more in capacity. Taillon, when last healthy for an entire season, was showing the promise that made him the second choice of the 2010 draft between Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. He was 14 to 10 years old with an ERA of 3.20 over 32 starts in 2018.
But this is not an isolated trade. It is done knowing that Taillon is returning from Tommy John’s surgery, as well as Severino, and Jordan Montgomery has made 11 league games since his Tommy John surgery in June 2018. Kluber is returning from a shoulder muscle injury last year. Domingo German made his last major league appearance on September 18, 2019, before being suspended under MLB’s domestic abuse protocols. Deivi Garcia and Clarke Schmidt have 40 ² / ₃ major league innings combined.
It is a strong inventory of talents. But in the best of circumstances, figuring out how to reach 1,450 major league entries in a season of 162 games is difficult to do without sacrificing capacity or exhausting a bullpen. Now, do it a year after a 60-game pandemic season, when no pitchers came close to their normal workload and there was no secondary league season. Now do it with this group of Yankee starters with Michael King launched for more depth. The line will be fine between great and scary.
The Yankees will not have Severino back until a few months after the start of the season and have no good intentions about mass inflows from anyone other than Gerrit Cole. It will take a massage to find breaks with six-man rotations and jump curves to prevent the non-Coles from being overwhelmed – the puzzle.
In 2019, the Yankees won 103 games with just one title holder (Masahiro Tanaka) qualified for the ERA title with 182 entries. JA Happ was 161 ¹ / ₃, James Paxton 150 ² / ₃, German 143 and CC Sabathia 107 ¹ / ₃. So it can be done, especially since the Yankee project to have a strong attack and bullpen again. In addition, they have not touched the best of their potential customer base, so if suddenly a Kyle Hendricks or German Marquez or Luis Castillo becomes available during the season, they will be in a position to negotiate again. And who knows with the COVID-19 pandemic if there will be a season of 162 games this year. The fewer games likely, the better the Yankee’s rotation will be maximized.
Perhaps the Yankees will continue to join the group. But this is not easy. The $ 2.25 million salary in 2021 made Taillon even more attractive as the Yankees approached the $ 210 million luxury tax threshold, which is the opening budget for the 2021 season.
So, the rotation pieces you see now are possibly what you will have to open the season. With Taillon, the group became more talented and more tenuous.