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New York Yankees Non-Roster Invitee Profile: Scott Baker

By Michael Cambria

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Now that pitchers and catchers have officially reported to George M. Steinbrenner Field, it’s time to begin this years edition of the New York Yankees Non-Roster Invitee Spring Training Player Profiles!

With the health of the starting pitching staff still the biggest question mark surrounding the Yankees and recent reports surfacing about a potential six man rotation to start the season, who better to start with than right-hand veteran pitcher Scott Baker, who is two years removed from Tommy John surgery.

Baker 33, was signed by the Yankees to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training on January 30th. He’ll earn $1.5 million if he makes the Yankees major league roster.He pitched in 25 games including eight starts for the Texas Rangers in 2014 and posted a 5.47 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP in his first season back from surgery.

Prior to pitching for the Rangers, Baker pitched to a 63-48 record while posting a 4.15 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and a 770/224 K/BB ratio over seven seasons with the Minnesota Twins.

Baker has an arsenal of four pitches, a fastball, slider, curve and changeup. He used to flirt with a cutter in 2006 but abandoned it, and it looked like he also gave up on his curve early on last season. Given the Yankees’ ability to teach the cutter (a-la Mariano Rivera), perhaps he could resurrect that pitch to further keep hitters off-balance.

He’s also know to be a flyball pitcher, with just over 45 percent of his outs coming via the ‘can-o’-corn’, which doesn’t translate well for the dynamics in Yankee Stadium. However, the Yankees did endure with Phil Hughes, so anything is possible.

According to sabermetrics, Baker proved to be a much better pitcher in 2014 than his ERA suggests. His overall WHIP of 1.19 last year was pretty solid and his fielding independent pitching (FIP) of 4.78, while not good, isn’t terribly dreadful. The only cause for concern is that Baker’s last completely healthy season occurred in 2011 with the Twins, in which he posted a 3.14 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 3.45 FIP and 123/32 K/BB ratio.

Still, Baker would have to prove that he still has some life left in that right-arm if he wants to out-duel Esmil Rogers, Bryan Mitchell, Chase Whitley and Adam Warren for the final spot in their six-man rotation or as one of the long-relievers out of the Yankees bullpen and on the 40-man Opening Day Roster to start the season.

What do you think Yankees fans? Let us know in the comments below!

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