Yankees Rumors: NYY scoped veteran’s showcase for more pitching help

Early in the season, the Yankees’ plan to fill the back 4/5 of their rotation with projectable risks and semi-lottery tickets has been … working-ish? It’s hardly the worst part about this roster, but the names beyond Gerrit Cole have been more disappointing than impressive.

Corey Kluber, so far, has displayed the ability to hang through four innings but not beyond that. Jameson Taillon has thrown two fantastic short appearances and one rough one, but his fastball shows serious signs of life.

Domingo German got demoted, Michael King hasn’t been allowed to start yet, and Jordan Montgomery has been a rock — though many fans have unfairly demanded perfection from him.

Overall, there’s depth there, and there are better options lurking in the minors (Deivi Garcia is now on the taxi squad, Clarke Schmidt’s been cortisone’d up), but we still wouldn’t begrudge the Yankees for leaving no stone unturned.

Barring a tremendous trade deadline acquisition — actually possible, if the team wants to eat Aaron Hicks or Gary Sanchez’s salary and intends to trade Clint Frazier — it’ll be bargain hunting all summer long, though.

In other words, we’re not shocked the Yankees attended Aníbal Sánchez’s showcase on Friday afternoon, and there are worse names to have floating around your roster.

The New York Yankees attended Aníbal Sánchez’s showcase.

“Aníbal Sánchez sucks!” He started a World Series game for the eventual champion 1.5 years ago, and threw 7.2 one-hit innings in the NLCS against the Cardinals, too. These are, uh … these are things German and King don’t exactly have on their resume.

Of course, his title defense with last year’s Nats went very poorly. In 53 innings, Sánchez allowed 70 hits and posted a 6.62 ERA that would look unsightly in anyone’s rotation, let alone that of a reigning champion.

That’s what’s strange, though. Sánchez still has feel and pitch-ability without an upper-echelon arsenal, which he proved against top competition just over a year ago (he ripped through the Dodgers in the NLDS, too).

All of this being said, there are probably a few teams more desperate for healthy arms than the Yankees (Toronto, anyone?), and many are assuming Sánchez simply ends up back with the Nationals when all’s said and done.

What say you, Yankee fans? Would you risk it all to add Sánchez as rotation depth?

What about risking nearly nothing to do so? Would you do that?

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