Yankees: 3 players on hot seat in spring training so far

2. Jhoulys Chacin

Oh, Jhoulys. Sweet, sweet Jhoulys.

We got sucked into the narrative here, too. We can’t lie to you.

When we were told the 33-year-old Chacin would be under consideration for the fifth starter spot, we bought in. We ignored his 2019 season partially spent in Boston (6.01 ERA total, 7.36 in Beantown) and focused instead on his 2018 campaign, which ended with playoff starts for the Milwaukee Brewers and NLCS triumph.

Hey, we’re easily swayed! We want to believe! Would it really be so bad to save some of the Yankees’ more important starters’ arms by letting Chacin take some low-pressure April starts?

No, it still wouldn’t be so bad — but based on what we’ve seen this spring, those starts wouldn’t go particularly well.

The Yankees won’t give Jhoulys Chacin the fifth starter spot.

Chacin hasn’t gotten a start yet in any spring outing, but in two relief appearances, he’s thrown an inning a piece and has gotten tagged for four earned runs — including, most notably, a pounced-on home run by Wilson Ramos.

The crafty righty didn’t enter camp with a lot of mystery attached to his name; he’s got the most complete profile of any fifth-starter candidate. While he hasn’t cratered quite as spectacularly as, say, Asher Wojciechowski, more steadiness was expected of him, and right now, it’d be hard for the Yankees to justify handing him the ball in an innings-eating scenario.