A month ago, starting pitching was the last thing the New York Yankees were worried about.
Even with Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole on the injured list, the Yankees had the best rotation in Major League Baseball and one of the best in franchise history.
Yankees Starting Rotation Makes MLB History, Even Without Gerrit Cole
Luis Gil was having a Cy Young-caliber season. Behind him, Clarke Schmidt, Marcus Stroman, Nestor Cortes, and Carlos Rodon were all having dominant years of their own.
How quickly things change.
Through the Yankees’ first 72 games of the season, their rotation had a combined ERA of 2.77, tops in all of MLB. The Yankees were also 50-22 at that point.
Since then, Yankees starters have a combined ERA of 6.37, which is dead last in all of MLB. The Yankees are 8-18 in that time.
Starting pitching has gone from the team’s biggest strength to their most glaring weakness, and the Yankees now could look to add an impact starter before the July 30 deadline. But it sounds like one of the top starters on the trade market isn’t coming to the Bronx.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post recently wrote about the trade deadline, and mentioned the Yankees as a team linked to Chicago White Sox All-Star pitcher Garrett Crochet. However, Heyman added, “one person said the Yankees ‘are not that into’ him.”
Crochet moved from the bullpen to the rotation this year, and has made a seamless transition. The left-hander has thrown 107.1 innings across 20 starts, sporting a 3.02 ERA with a league-best 150 strikeouts.
He’s expected to be one of the biggest prizes of this year’s deadline with multiple years of team control, but he does have some obvious red flags. Crochet has already thrown by far the most innings in his career, and there’s no telling what his second half could look like.
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It’s been reported that some teams view him as more of a bullpen piece for the rest of the regular season, who could then be built up as a starter come the postseason.
While Crochet’s numbers are impressive, the Yankees appear to not be interested in the risks. He’s widely expected to be the best pitcher traded (unless the Detroit Tigers move Tarik Skubal), so the Yankees will likely be looking at the second tier of pitchers to address their glaring rotation needs.
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