LAKELAND, Fla. — As recently as January, after the Yankees added Max Fried as a free agent, they felt they possessed a heck of a starting rotation. The baseball gods then intervened.
“On paper it was pretty amazing,” Carlos Rodón said during an interview after his opening day tune-up Friday evening. Rodón was the winning pitcher in a 4-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Joker Marchant Stadium.
But now Gerrit Cole is gone for the season after Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. Luis Gil, last year’s American League Rookie of the Year, is out for at least the first half of the season with a right lat strain. Clarke Schmidt has a sore right shoulder and will start the season on the injured list, the Yankees said in Tampa Saturday morning.
That leaves Rodón opening the season Thursday against the Milwaukee Brewers at Yankee Stadium followed by Fried, who the Yankees signed to an eight-year, $218 million deal, and Marcus Stroman, who was ticketed for the bullpen when camp started and none-too-pleased about it. Rodón had been slated for the third slot, Yanks manager Aaron Boone said.
It wasn’t the way Rodón envisioned his role.
“Obviously it’s an honor to start opening day, but the circumstances I’m not happy with,” said Rodón, who worked a brisk 4 2/3 innings of scoreless, three-hit ball Friday night and threw 77 pitches. “I’d rather have Gerrit Cole healthy. He’s our ace. He’s our rock. It’s tough to not have him as part of our season, but we’ll just have to pick him up.”
Beyond even Cole and Gil, the fourth and fifth spots are still very much up in the air with spring training ending.
Carlos Carrasco and Will Warren are the candidates for those final two rotation slots, with Schmidt not ready to pitch the first weeks of the season.
Schmidt threw 32 pitches to live hitters on Thursday, but had to miss a start. Obviously, he’s not stretched out enough to be ready, Boone said.
“I don’t want to rule him out, but yes, it’s likely we’ll have to find another way [aside from spring starts] to build him up,” Boone said.
It’s par for the course for Boone, who had to juggle starters last season when Cole and Schmidt missed significant time because of injuries and Stroman pitched his way out of the rotation as the Yanks won the AL pennant.
“Cole missed some time, and Clark missed a couple of months there in the middle,” Boone said. “A few other guys missed a little time. But overall, on balance we were pretty healthy last season from a pitching standpoint.”
Carrasco, who earned $2 million last year with the Cleveland Guardians, was in camp on a minor league contract and after a good spring was expected to opt out Saturday if he hadn’t been added to the 40-man roster on a big-league deal. That won’t happen, as Yankees general manger Brian Cashman told reporters on Saturday in Tampa that Carrasco will be added to the Yankees roster.
The Yanks go into the season with a fourth in Major League Baseball player payroll of $281.9 million for luxury tax purposes, with Cole’s $36 million part of the sunken costs.
It’s hard to believe with that kind of expenditure the Yanks pitching staff is in tatters. But it is. It’s time to be philosophical.
“You kind of have to just roll with the punches and keep going,” Rodón, who’s had his own bouts with injury, said. “That’s baseball.”
(This story has been updated with Saturday morning news from Tampa about the Yankees’ starting pitching rotation.)
