Yankees Editorial: The Bronx is Boiling: Pitching Style

The New York Yankees 2015 season has started off on the right foot. They are 19-12 and sit atop the American League East by two games. While some things are making fans happy, others need some work.

Masahiro Tanaka is on the shelf. CC Sabathia continues to pitch batting practice with each outing, and the rest of the rotation looks completely unreliable. Yet the Yankees keep winning. The Bronx is boiling and I need to blow some steam.

TRADE FOR A STARTER NOW

The Yankees need rotation help. That’s obvious. What isn’t so obvious is why they aren’t pursuing it more aggresively. Yes, they are winning, but if they stick with the rotation they have in place now, they won’t be much longer.

More from Yankees News

The move doesn’t have to be a big one. The Yankees don’t have to make the big splash on a Cole Hamels or Johnny Cueto to excel (although it would be nice at the right price). They proved that last year by trading for Brandon McCarthy and putting faith in the Shane Greene’s of the farm system.

What can’t happen is sticking with the rotation in place, especially if Tanaka goes down for the long hall. Let me make this perfectly clear. I like Adam Warren. He is actually one of my favorite current Yankees’ players. But he is not a starter.

I was against the move in the first place. What Warren has proven this season is that he is more adequately served as the seventh inning guy to the lethal Dellin Betances–Andrew Miller combo at the back of the bullpen. Let me explain.

Warren’s numbers don’t look too terrible and he has been the starter for more Yankees wins than losses. His last two starts, however, show his ultimate problem and why he may not be suited for the rotation.

His May 3rd start against the Red Sox and this past Friday’s start against the Orioles were nearly mirror images of each other. Warren cruised through the lineup once. Warren went five scoreless against the Sox, but then the hit parade started and he collapsed. Four runs scored and before you knew it, Warren, who was seemingly cruising, couldn’t make it out of the sixth.

The same thing happened Friday. He reeled off four scoreless innings against the Orioles until the fifth inning rolled around. The hit parade once again started, Warren allowed the Orioles to creep back into the game and he couldn’t make it through the fifth inning.

Whether he is tipping his pitches or becoming too predicatble that opposing lineups can figure him out the second time through the lineup, Warren is not showing he can hack it as a full time starter in the bigs. Last season, he was incredible in his bullpen role. Should the Yankees make a move and bring in a starter, whether that be a call-up (Luis Severino, I’m looking at you) or a trade, moving Warren back to the bullpen would make this team stronger.

Nathan Eovaldi has shown he is what he is, and seemingly what he will always be. He will pitch amazing one outing and then look like a Triple-A pitcher in his next. This is what Eovaldi has always been, and why he frustrated the Marlins so much that they traded the young arm. Everyone knows that Eovaldi has “the stuff”, he just can’t consistently wield it.

That’s fine were Eovaldi the fourth or fifth pitcher in the rotation. I think he is a very welcomed addition to the Yankees, and he should be able to continue pitching at the back end of the rotation. However, with Tanaka out and CC underperforming, Eovaldi is being asked to pitch like a top end of the rotation, and if that remains the case, the Yankees are in trouble.

Chris Capuano is nearly done with rehab and Ivan Nova is hopefully not far away from starting his. Are they the answers? Perhaps they will be enough to push the Yankees through. But in order for them to make a playoff push, they need an experienced arm in the rotation. They shouldn’t rest on their solid start and winning record and think they have the right formula in place. Now is the time to get aggressive and start molding for a run back to October.

More from Yanks Go Yard

Home/Yankees News