Bizarre Yankees pitching addition dominates in debut after brutal Tigers season

I will not get Allan Winans'd again. I will not get Allan Winans'd again. I will not get tricked into believing that an ineffective starter can help the Yankees soak up innings because of a spotless Triple-A debut. I will not get tr--dammit.

Beset by injuries all summer, the Yankees are actually closer to full health now than they've been in a while, with both Ryan Yarbrough and Fernando Cruz beginning rehab assignments following Luis Gil's return to the rotation. Crossing every finger known to man here, but they might not need quite so many spot starts down the stretch, unless they're saving Cam Schlittler or Will Warren's innings count.

That said ... it's always good to have options. And one of MLB's most disappointing drains this season just showed signs of life in his first appearance in (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's slightly off-color) pinstripes.

Kenta Maeda, after being unceremoniously released by the Detroit Tigers this summer, just soaked up six innings with no walks and seven Ks down on the farm in his system debut. He did so against a stacked and experienced Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Phillies) lineup. Is it meaningful? Meaningless? Somewhere in between, as always, but it was beautiful to watch big-league efficiency carve up a high-minors order.

Wait, is that Kenta Maeda dominating for the Yankees' Triple-A team?!

Sure is. Always has been.

It does not get worse than the version of Maeda who toiled for Detroit this season. Converted to a reliever on a $12 million deal in its final year, he appeared in just seven games/eight innings, posting a 7.88 ERA before being shown the door. He had a 6.09 ERA with a much longer leash last year, subtracting a hard-to-believe 1.8 bWAR in 29 games/17 starts. Quickly, the Tigers' ambition for a veteran rotation leader became a desperate cry for mop-up work (and even that didn't work).

Will the 37-year-old Maeda rise to the Bronx this fall? Ideally not. Please, no. That would be ... no.

At the very least, though, we've been given a positive example of what it could look like in his very first chance toeing the Scranton rubber. Now let us never speak of this again.