Yankees: 3 Ways Aaron Boone Can Creatively Use Pitching Staff in 2020

The New York Yankees should use the pitching staff to their ultimate advantage in 2020.

Gerrit Cole is now a Bronx Bomber and he’ll be as a fresh as ever for a 60-game season, which fans have to be thrilled about. The strain of a usual MLB campaign won’t wear him down. The same goes for Masahiro Tanaka and James Paxton, considering the former typically pitches better with more rest, while the latter continuously deals with injuries.

But what’s perhaps the best about all of this? The bullpen will be ready to mow down the competition come playoff time with significantly less mileage on their arms. That means Yankees manager Aaron Boone needs to figure out ways to creatively use the pitching staff in 2020 to maximize the team’s potential.

Let’s take a look at a few ways he can shake things up and throw off New York’s opponents.

3. Give Top Prospects Some Spot Starts

Top pitching prospects will need some reps this year, so the Yankees should give them spot starts.

The Yankees will be playing the Orioles a lot in 2020, and we know how bad Baltimore is, even if they managed to get their hands on some top young players over the last couple of years via the MLB Draft. Why not use those games to give some younger pitchers an opportunity to get valuable reps under their belt? Deivi Garcia, Michael King, Clarke Schmidt and Albert Abreu (to name a few) are among the top prospect pitchers in the team’s 60-man player pool. Giving them an inning or two against inferior opponents such as the Orioles could go a long way. We don’t know what the schedule will look like just yet, and while every game counts, it’ll also be important to get these top guys some ample playing time so they don’t lose an entire year of development. After all, the Yankees will have guys like JA Happ, Jordan Montgomery, Jonathan Loaisiga, Chad Green, and the entire bullpen to back up these youngsters in case the spot starts go south right off the bat (which we doubt will happen often).