Yankees: Chance Adams is the best option to fill in for CC Sabathia

The Yankees suffered another loss to their starting rotation on Thursday after they announced CC Sabathia was placed on the IL with right knee inflammation. Nestor Cortes Jr. was called up to fill his spot on the roster but it remains to be seen who will fill his spot on the starting staff.

That’s now 14 players on the IL for the Yankees and yet they still sit in first place atop the AL East with a record of 32-17. For the past four seasons, the same lingering knee issue has forced CC to go on the IL but the good news is it usually doesn’t keep him out for most than a couple starts.

According to reports that should be the case here and CC should be back in the Yankee rotation at some point in early June. Losing CC definitely hurts especially since James Paxton and Luis Severino are also still out but this IL stint will also give him a chance to get a cortisone shot in his knee and rest his arm so can come back stronger for the rest of his final big league season.

Every time this injury forces CC to miss some time he always comes back throwing the ball great upon his return so I don’t see why this year would be any different. That being said the Yankees are running out of internal options to fill his spot in the rotation which is a bit concerning.

After Paxton went down with left knee inflammation on May 4th the Yankees replaced him with Jonathan Loaisiga but he only made one start in his absence before landing on the IL himself. Loaisiga is out with a shoulder strain and was recently moved to the 60-day IL so he’s not going to be an option for the Yankees for quite some time.

When Loaisiga went down the Yankees opted to use Chad Green as an opener when his turn in the rotation came around last Sunday and that’s what they plan on doing again tonight against the Royals. There’s a chance they opt to do the same thing the next time CC’s turn comes around but considering how they only have three healthy starters right now I’d advise against it.

As good as the Yankees pen has been in May and over the past couple weeks they’ve been used a lot lately and the last thing Aaron Boone wants is to overwork them this early in the season. When you use an opener twice in five days that’s exactly what you’re going to do so I think they’ll have to call someone up from Triple-A to take CC’s spot.

The most deserving name is probably Chance Adams who was just sent down following Sunday’s game after he pitched three scoreless innings and earned a save. Adams was impressive on Sunday attacking the Rays hitters, striking out four and prior to his call-up he only allowed three earned runs over his previous three starts with the RailRiders in 19.2 IP.

Adams used to be one of the Yankees top prospects in 2016 and 17 but 2018 was a down year for him with Scranton. He finished the year with a 4.78 ERA in 113 IP and had a career-worst WHIP of 1.41. He dropped from 5th in the team’s prospect rankings all the way down to 20th entering this season according to MLB Pipeline.

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Prior to the 2018 season, Adam underwent offseason elbow surgery which definitely impacted his season but now that he’s over a year removed from the surgery he’s throwing the ball much better and regained some velocity. His numbers this year still aren’t great because he got off to a terrible start but his last three starts lowered his ERA to 4.80 and we saw him continue his success on Sunday in the Bronx.

The Yankees could also opt to go with Nestor Cortes Jr. to make a start but he figures to be the guy tasked with following Chad Green out of the pen tonight as he did last Sunday. They also have 31-year old David Hale who they recently called up but it’d be nice to see someone younger like Adams get his shot.

He’s already on the 40-man roster and it would only be for a start or two because CC shouldn’t be out for too long and Paxton could return as soon as next week. With the way the Yankee offense and pen has performed of late they can afford to give a guy like Adams this opportunity and see what they have in him.

He’s still only 24-years old and we’re not all that far removed from him being one of the top 100 prospects in baseball. Now that he’s back to feeling 100% healthy and pitching well it’s time to see what he can do at the big league level.