Yankees News: Chris Capuano to Start Sunday v. Royals

New York Yankees skipper Joe Girardi announced that veteran southpaw Chris Capuano will make his first start off the disabled list on Sunday in the series finale v. Edinson Volquez (2-3, 3.19 ERA) and the Kansas City Royals. The decision will push Nathan Eovaldi‘s scheduled start back to Tuesday when the Yankees begin a two-game set with the Washington Nationals.

Though Capuano should provide the Yankees rotation with a slight boost given that Masahiro Tanaka is still out and Ivan Nova is still progressing towards his return, the Yankees need to be realistic in what they should expect out of the 36-year old left hander.

Capuano isn’t going to blow opposing batters away and he isn’t going to post a sub 3.00 ERA, though he’s more than welcome too if he’d like.

The Yankees will need Capuano however, to log a ton of innings. As a back-of-the-rotation anchor, the Yankees will need Capuano to pitch into at least the seventh and eight innings of ballgames to allow their beat up bullpen to gain some rest.

Yes, asking a 36-year old pitcher coming off the DL to be a work horse is a tall task, but let’s be honest, it’s what he was brought to the Bronx to do.

Capuano underwent Tommy John surgery before making a major league start back in 2001, and has since thrown 1,350 innings and logged over 100 innings during six different major league seasons.

In 37 games this season, the Yankees starting rotation has been abysmal, combining for a total of just six quality starts, which has them ranked in the bottom third of the league. To put it as simply as possible, Capuano needs to pitched deeper into ballgames than Adam Warren and Nathan Eovaldi.

Oh yea, and one more thing. The Yankees need Capuano to stay healthy too.

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