Yankees' rotation vs. Rays is setting up a potential Wild Card Series mistake

The New York Yankees are almost guaranteed to face the Boston Red Sox in an upcoming best-of-three Wild Card series, and can lock up homefield advantage with either a singular win in their final seven games or one Boston loss. The time is now for forecasting and getting your ducks in a row, and the Yankees have acknowledged as such; resetting Brent Headrick, for example, is more important than going all out to embarrass the Tampa Bay Rays this week.

That makes every rotation decision or perceived pattern seem magnified, especially after Boston lined up their starters for their upcoming series with the Cleveland Guardians: Payton Tolle, Sonny Gray, Ranger Suárez. Is that the chips falling where they may, or is that foreshadowing? Either way, while winking and nodding, it's probably time to read similarly into the way the Yankees are handlng things.

That's why our eyebrows raised on Sunday when the Yanks revealed that Cam Schlittler and Gerrit Cole will stay on turn in the Rays series (for now), with Schlittler closing the four-game set and Cole pitching Game 3, both staying out of the doubleheader. That will leave Cole with an extra day of rest ahead of the WIld Card opener and Schlittler on normal rest. You're not saying ... ?

All the love in the world to Gerrit Cole, who got closer to securing an all-important Wild Card Series start with his strong appearance in the desert on Friday night. But given that his spot in the rotation in general has been rightly questioned, there is no world where he should start Game 1 over Schlittler. That is not even something that should be rolling around in the canals of my addled gray brain. And yet!

Yankees giving Gerrit Cole the rest he needs ahead of Wild Card Series. Will Cam Schlittler even start vs. Rays?

For now, this is all hypothetical, but ... Cole has always seemed like a candidate for a deciding Game 3, but nothing before it. Would the Yankees really dare to use him in a deciding game with three extra days of rest building up on his right arm?

And, if the Rays clinch the AL East this week and the Yankees lock down their positioning, will they use Schlittler at all in this series? Will he make a perfunctory three-inning cameo just to keep his sea legs ahead of the Sox showdown and prevent overthrowing/overcompensating? The Cy Young race between he and Dylan Cease is informally over, and Cease may not even be healthy enough to make another start. If positioning gets more solidified throughout the week, these decisions only become more fascinating.

As of now, though, before any adjustments ... it seems like there's at least a chance the Yankees are lining up Cole for Game 1 - or working him out of the picture entirely.

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