The start of the 2024 regular season is just five weeks away but the Yankees’ starting rotation isn’t necessarily set.
After bringing on Marcus Stroman, it appeared Brian Cashman was done with his stable of starters, but recent rumors have tabbed a potential late push for reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.
Acquiring him adds a completely new dimension to the Yankees’ rotation but for now, here is what the Bronx Bombers are working with as spring training ramps up:
No. 1: Gerrit Cole
Death, taxes, Gerrit Cole doing his job. The reigning AL Cy Young isn’t in the business of
fixing what isn’t broken, but rather, eating away at innings, frustrating batters, and throwing
strikes in the most deceptive way possible.
A leader in the locker room, the dugout, and on the mound, Cole earned the right to lead off the rotation this season.
No. 2: Carlos Rodon
In the 2022 offseason, the Yankees signed a pitcher with a 14-8 record and 2.88 ERA. The only word available to describe his pitching was “ace,” considering the power behind his mid-to-high-90s fastball and mid-to-high 80s slider. Pair him right behind a dominant competitor like Cole in the same rotation, and the Yankees had the ideal jab-and-cross duo for the 2023 season, right?
Cole did exactly what was expected of him, but the same can’t be said for the other half of that
duo. After a season marred by injuries, there is a whole other vibe to Rodon. Once accused of
being a diva in the Bronx — never mind the performance issues — the early portions of spring training show that Rodon is looking and acting a completely different way than he was in the 2023 season.
He started working out in Florida during the first week of January, well before the expected Valentine’s Day report date for pitchers and catchers.
If nothing, he looks different as he’s shed a few pounds:
Here’s a noticeably slimmer Carlos Rodón pic.twitter.com/sNqjnhoHSu
— Chris Kirschner (@ChrisKirschner) February 19, 2024
The time and practice are paying off, or at least it appears to. After all, we’re only a week into spring training counting the competitive live at-bats he’s accruing against his teammates.
But with how promising Rodon looks and the ability to stagger a southpaw between righties, this might be the time to put him in the No. 2 slot in the rotation, for the intended effect. Still, it remains to be seen what a healthy Rodon is capable of in a regular season right behind Cole.
No. 3: Marcus Stroman
Signing Stroman was an important depth piece to bolster the middle of the Yankees’ rotation. Injuries derailed an All-Star first half to his 2022 season with the Chicago Cubs that had him in initial Cy Young conversations. He was 10-6 with a 2.88 ERA across his first 20 starts.
Now healthy, he can get back on track in the Bronx where he can continue building on what had been a serviceable four-year run that saw him post a 3.38 ERA from 2019-2022.
No. 4: Nestor Cortes
The southpaw here keeps an alternating righty-lefty attack intact for the Yankees but like Rodon, Cortes has some injury issues to shake off to show he can rediscover a higher level to his game.
He showed what he could do when healthy two years ago, posting a 2.44 ERA over 158.1 innings pitched to back a 12-4 record — he finished in the top 10 of the AL Cy Young Award voting that year.
Anything close to that kind of output again, and the Yankees will have one of the most balanced rotations in baseball.
No. 5 Clarke Schmidt
Regarded as one of the last men standing in the doomed 2023 Yankees’ rotation, Clarke Schmidt deserves to be commended.
Now in the full swing of things in spring training, riding the wave of his success from last
season, it’s not beyond the window of reason to keep him in a spot where he flourished before. Not to mention the fact that putting Schmidt at the No. 5 slot serves as a good backup to
do damage control in case Cortes, or Stroman underperforms.
The mention of Stroman is important because nobody knows how he will handle pitching in a hitter-friendly park like Yankee Stadium — though there should be little doubt about how he could handle performing in New York considering he did so with the Mets.
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