Yankees can’t pin 2020 starting rotation hopes on Deivi Garcia

General manager Brian Cashman recently left the door open for No. 1 prospect Deivi Garcia to make the Yankees 2020 opening day starting rotation. However, the Bombers would be foolish to put all their eggs in a 20-year-old’s basket.

Before the start of the ALCS, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was asked to describe top prospect Deivi Garcia’s 2019 season — one in which he pitched at three different minor league levels.

Cashman’s response was “Amazing.” However, Cashman really should have said that parts of it were amazing — but there is still a considerable amount of work to be done.

In fairness to Cash, the longtime GM of the Bombers did follow up his exclamation by pointing out Garcia’s age (20), and how he was the youngest pitcher in both Double-A and Triple-A.

However, the results in performance that Garcia exhibited between the Eastern League and the International League are considerably different.

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Across 53.2 innings (11) starts for Double-A Trenton (Eastern League), Garcia went 4-4 with a 3.86 ERA, 1.286 WHIP, 14.6 K/9, 0.8 HR/9, 4.4 BB/9 and .213 BAA.

Promoted immediately after the Futures Game, which took place during the All-Star festivities in Cleveland, the Dominican-born Garcia showed why most 20-year-olds aren’t ready for the International League (Triple-A).

In six starts and 11 appearances (40 innings), which culminated in a late-season move to the Scranton RailRiders’ bullpen — to gauge whether or not he could help the big league team during the postseason, Garcia’s statistics took a significant hit.

A 1-3 record, 5.40 ERA, 1.475 WHIP, 10.1 K/9, 1.8 HR/9, 4.5 BB/9 and .262 BAA inevitably kept Garcia away from October baseball in the Bronx and gave pause to a wildly quick trip through the Yanks’ farm system.

Despite his 5-foot-9, 163-pound frame, Garcia is a strikeout machine. Fourteen times this past season, he struck out six or more batters in a single game, including a whopping 15 on June 18 while still at Trenton.

However, the 111.1 innings he tossed in 2019 was by far the most he’s thrown since joining the Yankees organization in 2016 at the age of 17 (total of 74 innings in 2018).

While I very much want to see the organization’s top overall prospect — at least half a season at Triple-A to begin 2020 would do Garcia a world of wonder.

With a fully healthy Luis Severino expected to retake his spot atop the Yankees rotation, he’ll be joined by James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka. After that, things get a bit cloudy.

While 37-year-old J.A. Happ is signed for another season at $17 million, the outcome of Domingo German’s ongoing domestic abuse investigation weighs heavily.

The Yanks’ winningest regular-season pitcher in 2019 (18 victories), German faces an 80-game suspension.

Even with Jordan Montgomery expected to be fully stretched out in time for a potential return to the rotation, the ALCS loss in six games to the Astros proved the Bombers need at least one front line shooter (Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, Madison Bumgarner) to take the pressure off their overworked bullpen.

Regardless, Garcia will need to be added to the team’s 40-man roster this winter to avoid the dreaded Rule 5 Draft. For me, I don’t want to see Garcia rushed to the majors only to struggle like Severino first did, and have to be sent back to Triple-A to figure things out.

As much as the Yanks have pinched pennies over the past few offseason’s, falling just shy of a World Series appearance is no time to lock the bank vault. Besides, Garcia needs to be viewed as a luxury in 2020, not a necessity.