3 moves the Yankees can make to be even more unbeatable
By Tre LyDay
2. Find a fifth starter
One strength of the Yankees that went under the radar was their pitching staff. Luis Severino emerged as one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Despite Masahiro Tanaka’s struggles for about half the season, he found his groove after the All-Star break.
Brian Cashman was able to acquire former Oakland A’s pitcher Sonny Gray, and now the Yankees have three starters that would be viable aces on about half the league’s rosters. Throw in Jordan Montgomery, who had a really good rookie campaign, and you’re only missing one more rotation spot.
The Yankees have a few options. They can either bring up Chance Adams from Triple-A or they can hit the free agent market. Chance Adams would obviously be the cheaper route, but two young guys at the back end of the rotation isn’t always a recipe for success even after Adams dominated in Scranton Wilkes-Barre. Adams is the future; it’s just a matter of bringing him into the right situation.
They’ve also discussed bullpen specialist Chad Green taking over that fifth spot. Green was originally a starter before “bullpenning” became such a big deal. Green might be better served as the long man in an already incredible bullpen, though.
As for free agency, their first option would obviously be CC Sabathia. The winning pitcher in the Game 5 clincher against the Cleveland Indians in the ALDS is definitely interested in returning to New York, and it wouldn’t cost the Yankees a ton to bring him back.
If for some reason Sabathia doesn’t return to the Yankees, they could look to a guy like Lance Lynn or Alex Cobb. But their market value is over $16 million, which might be more than they want to pay. If none of those options worked out, then they could entertain the idea of bringing back Michael Pineda who is recovering from Tommy John surgery.