Gerrit Cole is getting an MRI on his pitching elbow, skipper Aaron Boone revealed on Monday morning.
What happens if the ace finds himself on the injured list for an extended period?
Option 1: Sign Someone
There are two major unsigned starting pitchers: Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery. Snell is the reigning NL Cy Young and Montgomery just won a World Series for the Rangers, so it’s not exactly slim pickings for the Yankees if it turns out that Cole is unavailable.
Last season, Snell had the lowest ERA in the league at 2.25 and was tied for third in strikeouts with 234. He’s not a power pitcher like Cole because he doesn’t clock as high up on the radar gun, but instead relies on his stuff (not to say Cole doesn’t).
He has nearly 30% of batters faced chasing at the plate, successfully striking out over 31%. His whiff rates are even higher.
Or, they can look at reuniting with Montgomery, a nuanced pitcher with a 10-11 record and a shaky history in the Bronx.
What he does have going for him, is his very recent and relevant experience in Texas. In the two months and the postseason he spent with the Rangers, his ERA was chipped down from 3.42 (his ERA with the St. Louis Cardinals) to 3.20. He went 3-1 in the postseason, pitching 31 innings en route to a ring. He went deep into his outings often, pitching 7.0 innings in his first postseason win over the Tampa Bay Rays, 6.1 innings in his win over the Houston Astros in the ALCS, and 6.0 innings in the World Series against Arizona.
The common thread through it all is, like Snell, he gets batters to move their bat without ROI.
His changeup and curveballs generate the most whiffs at 39% and 37% respectively, so when he has his stuff, batters can forget about their date with first base.
Option 2: Internal Promotion
We could also discuss the possibility of taking someone from the bullpen and plugging them into the starting rotation. If it sounds familiar, it’s because that’s exactly what the Yankees did last year due to the injuries they were plagued with during the regular season. At least this time around, they see the ball coming in slowly.
A good contender is Ian Hamilton – his breaking ball is the stuff of nightmares as his go-to tool. He held batters to .156 with it. In the instances where batters did make contact, it was weak: 51.9% of batters grounded out when Hamilton toed the rubber.
