Why didn't Yankees consider recent Brewers signing to supplement Luis Gil injury?

For some time now, the New York Yankees have been aware they had some starting rotation problems. There's the whole Marcus Stroman thing. Clarke Schmidt has been delayed with a back issue. And Luis Gil was shut down with an apparent shoulder issue last week.

Well, Stroman's looked bad this spring. Schmidt still hasn't appeared in a game. And the official ruling on Gil came down Monday when he suffered a lat strain that will keep him from throwing for at least six weeks, likely putting him on a 2-to-3 month timetable for return.

What was once an embarrassment of riches in the rotation has quickly turned into a pedestrian five-man unit, especially since fans know what they're getting out of Carlos Rodón at this point. With all of that laid out on the table, why didn't the Yankees consider cheap insurance to eat some innings?

Former Mets starter Jose Quintana signed a $4.25 million contract with the Brewers for the 2025 season on Monday night. The Yankees couldn't afford that? They didn't deem that an appropriate price to pay for a thinning rotation?

Fans had this same discussion regarding Giancarlo Stanton. The organization knew he was injured and knew he was going to miss time, but there weren't any efforts to sign a cheap bat to respectably replace his production. And those options were aplenty about a month or so ago.

Yankees could've addressed Luis Gil injury with Jose Quintana signing

Over the last two seasons with the Mets, Quintana has amassed a 4.2 WAR across 44 starts (246 innings), logging a 3.70 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. He's a soft-tossing lefty, but he's clearly been able to harness his stuff into his latter years, and we're not sure why that wasn't valued by the Yankees.

Would Quintana have replaced the impact of the high-velocity Gil? No. But depending on how the Stroman, Schmidt and Will Warren scenarios shake out, there's a legitimate concern the Yankees' rotation could, once again, place a burden on the bullpen if they don't pitch deep into games on a consistent basis. Stroman's proven to break down in the second half most of his career; Schmidt frequently finds himself injured; and Warren doesn't yet possess the workload experience to reach "everyday starter" level.

There's been a lot of chatter regarding the Yankees' desire to remain under the Cohen Tax threshold, but micro purchases such as Quintana aren't going to jeopardize their financial restraints. It's confusing why they've remained far on the periphery for these cheap, one-year veterans who could clearly lift an incomplete roster.

Maybe we'll learn more as to why this wasn't a fit. But we probably won't. And it'll have fans asking more and more questions when the depth gets further tested if injuries continue to trend in the wrong direction.