Yankees Editorial: How Important Will Nathan Eovaldi Be?

Power arm starters are the name of the game now. You want guys who throw gas and strike people out and that doesn’t apply to just the bullpen. With that in mind, the Yankees acquired Nathan Eovaldi in the off-season in the big trade with the Miami Marlins. Eovaldi throws gas, but just hasn’t been able to record those high strikeout totals quite yet.

Eovaldi had a career high in innings with 199.2. However, he gave up an NL-high 223 hits and had a 4.57 ERA and struck out just 142 batters. Eovaldi turns 25 today.

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If there is anyone who can help harness the talent and potential that Eovaldi has it is pitching coach Larry Rothschild, who has to be in the upper echelon of pitching coaches in the game today.

The hope is that Eovaldi, Michael Pineda and Masahiro Tanaka can be the cornerstone power arm pitchers to help bring the Yankees success, not only now, but in the future. Add prospect Luis Severino, and the Yankees have a potential for a fireball rotation for years to come.

Here’s how Eovaldi assessed last year to the NY Post:

"“I had ups and downs,” Eovaldi said Wednesday at the Yankees’ minor league complex when asked to evaluate his 2014 season. “I accomplished a lot that I wanted to. I stayed healthy and got a lot of innings under my belt. I controlled my walks, but my ERA was a lot higher than I’d like it to have been. And I gave up too many hits.”"

According to that same article, the thing Eovaldi and Rothschild will be working on is Eovaldi’s off-speed pitches.

Eovaldi clearly has talent. He was the main part of the trade that brought Hanley Ramirez to the Dodgers back in July of 2012. You’re not traded for a player like Hanley if you don’t have some sort of potential.

The Yankees hope that they can help Eovaldi reach his potential as a pitcher. If Rothschild can, the Yankees may have a pretty good arm on their hands.

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