Bryan Mitchell: Yankees Starting Rotation Candidate?

The Yankees rotation seems mostly full with six candidates having major league starting experience vying for five spots.

But no MLB team will go through a season with only five starters and the Yankees are no exception. There are durability concerns with four of these hurlers, while the two others are no sure thing either.

Masahiro Tanaka, Nathan Eovaldi and Michael Pineda had elbow injuries last year, CC Sabathia is coming back from alcohol rehab, Ivan Nova is coming back from Tommy John surgery and Luis Severino, the only one with no injury history, only has 62.1 major league innings under his belt.

When one of these starter inevitably go down during the season or maybe even in spring training, I believe the Yankees should hand the ball to one of their young pitchers, Bryan Mitchell.

Mitchell always had outstanding stuff relying mostly on his mid 90’s fastball and his knee-buckling curvevall while sprinkling in some cutters and changeups. His results never matched that as he posted an ERA over 4.00 with high walk rates in the minors from 2011-2014.

Something clicked for him in 2015 as he went on to post a 3.12 ERA in 15 Triple-A starts, as well as a 3.86 ERA in the majors from late June through mid August. He then got hit in the face by a line drive and was never the same, ending the season with a 6.37 ERA.

But many consider him as a pitcher that could make an impact this year, including Brian McCann.

“I love our staff. I feel like a lot of people are sleeping on them…If you look at it, you’ve got every fifth night, we’re running out a good arm and we’ve got some guys—Bryan Mitchell, who hopefully takes the next step.” -Brian McCann

During his work in the majors last year, the young hurler showed he has what it takes to get big league hitters out. He struck out almost a batter per inning while inducing a 50% ground ball rate.

If he can be the pitcher he was prior to his injury, Mitchell will turn plenty of heads during spring training. He could put himself in position to earn a starting job early in the year, especially if you consider his potential and the injury risk of New York’s pitching staff as a whole.

It doesn’t matter if he starts the year in the starting five, the bullpen or Triple-A. You can expect him to throw plenty of innings for the Yankees this year, most likely coming from the starting rotation and earlier than you would think.