Yankees starting rotation meeting expectations thus far

After a busy offseason, the Yankees “super team” is still lacking an exceptional rotation. However, after the opening series versus Baltimore, Yankee starters showed that they could help this team compete — at least a little.

Without their ace in Luis Severino, the Yankees rotation is weaker than expected, but two out of three starters thus far have held their own.

Both Masahiro Tanaka and the newly acquired James Paxton threw 5.2 innings in their starts, giving up just one earned run, respectively.

Tanaka, having earned his first win of the season on Opening Day, pitched well up until the 6th inning, only to be replaced by Adam Ottavino.

Although Tanaka only stuck out five on the afternoon, should he continue to limit his walks; zero last game, his presence on the staff will be as significant as ever.

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Paxton, on the other hand, earned his first loss as a Yankee, despite pitching well. The Big Maple cruised through five innings, allowing just one hit while striking out five, only to give up two runs and consequently get pulled in the sixth.

The lousy note of opening weekend was J.A. Happ’s rather pedestrian performance on Sunday afternoon. Although Happ started the rain-delayed contest off with a strikeout, he soon allowed a three-run homer to Renato Nunez.

A Trey Mancini solo shot in the third inning summarized the rest of Happ’s abbreviated start.

Manager Aaron Boone decided to pull the veteran left-hander after only the fourth inning. Upon retiring the side in the fourth, perhaps Boone, for the second day in a row, went to the bullpen too soon.

In the end, the Yanks couldn’t rebound, leaving a total of 12 runners on base– losing 7-5 to the Baltimore Orioles — a team the Bombers should beat every time out (winners of just 47 games last season).

The common theme between all three Yankee starts was the brevity of each. Of the three starts thus far, not one lasted six innings. This could be due to a lack of confidence in the rotation, or more so from the abundance of belief in their bullpen.

Or perhaps it merely signals the start of a long season and Aaron Boone isn’t looking to tax any of his starters so soon. There’s also the thinking that this could be a new strategy that the Yankees have adopted. Having a solid starter, capable of pitching five innings, that turns the ball over to an overpowering bullpen could very well work.

In doing so, Yankee starters will likely face batters only twice, while also not tiring out as quickly.

We will likely see similar moves with the back-end of the rotation. Domingo German, who’s filling in for Severino, will probably be asked for around five innings — and C.C. Sabathia, when he returns from the IL, will likely be asked to do the same.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Yankees continue to utilize their underrated rotation, especially after the return of Luis Severino. I see the Yanks having a harder time limiting their ace to under six innings like the rest of the rotation.