Yankees: Projecting NYY Starting Rotation After PPD Games vs Phillies

The Yankees have had their last two games against the Phillies postponed, which changes up the rotation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has infiltrated Major League Baseball yet again. The Miami Marlins, who wrapped up a series in Philadelphia against the Phillies on Sunday, had 17 players test positive for the virus, which has forced Monday’s and Tuesday’s Phils-Yankees games to be postponed.

This is especially not good for the Yankees, who had Opening Night cut short due to rain last Thursday, had Friday off, and have now not played since Sunday. That’s not exactly how you want to start the year in a 60-game sprint when you’re trying to get your ducks in a row.

However, if there’s one silver lining here, it’s that the Bombers have some time to recalibrate and figure things out with their pitching staff.

As fans are well aware, the Yankees used pretty much the entirety of their bullpen between Saturday and Sunday. Aaron Boone opted for a bullpen game on Sunday, which is fine and good, but it came directly after an unintentional bullpen game on Saturday after James Paxton failed to record more than three outs.

Now, we could have a clearer picture of how Boone deploys the staff moving forward. Maybe bullpen games are used only as an emergency now? Masahiro Tanaka is on the mend and should be back with the team soon, and the Yanks have Paxton, Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery and JA Happ to bring the five-man rotation into focus.

So how might this look when games return?

The Yanks are headed to Baltimore to face the Orioles, who were supposed to play a series against the Marlins from Monday-Thursday. While we expected to see Jordan Montgomery kick things off since he’s been getting his regular throwing in while in Scranton, it turns out the NYY went in another direction, going with their ace.

So let’s say the rotation looks like this:

• Gerrit Cole
• JA Happ
• Jordan Montgomery
• James Paxton
• Masahiro Tanaka

Give Tanaka all the rest he possibly needs and send him to the mound against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday Night Baseball. Assuming Gumby is ready to go, he can start off Friday’s series opener against Boston, though we would’ve rather seen Cole at home here. He’d be followed by Paxton on Saturday and Tanaka on Sunday.

Based on what Brian Cashman just told reporters, this would seem to be accurate.

That seems to make sense, right? Ditch the bullpen games for now since we might need a few by accident given the uncertainty surrounding the back end of the rotation (and even part of the front end!).

What are your thoughts on this?