How good is the Yankees pitching rotation, and can it be better?
The Yankees have the highest winning percentage in baseball, but the rotation has been uneven at best. After Luis Severino, there are lots of questions.
Aaron Boone has been forced to shuffle a lot of starting pitchers in his first season in charge of the New York Yankees. To his credit, he’s been able to keep things together. That doesn’t mean that everyone in his rotation is pitching up to their full capability.
Luis Severino is unquestionably an ace, but the other four starters have certainly experienced their share of ups and downs. If the Yankees are going to make noise in October, they’ll need better pitching from the rest of the staff.
In this piece, we’ll examine the five pitchers who will hopefully anchor the team’s rotation for the rest of the season. Jordan Montgomery will be omitted since he’s out for the year due to Tommy John surgery. Jonathan Loaisiga made a terrific first start, but he can’t be fully evaluated after five innings of work. Masahiro Tanaka will be included since he should return sometime around the All Star break. We start, by evaluating the man who’s taken Montgomery’s turn in the rotation.
5. Domingo German
If you judge German simply by the numbers you won’t be very impressed. His ERA of 5.23 is the worst in the starting rotation. However, if you watch him pitch, you can certainly understand why Boone and company have high hopes for him.
Right now he’s got two excellent pitches. His fastball comfortably reaches the mid-90s and shows a lot of movement. German struggles to command it at times, but that’s something that should improve with time. Improving the consistency of his delivery would certainly aid his command.
German also showcases a plus breaking ball that really fools hitters. It’s got a lot of movement and the young righty hides the ball very well. When he commands the fastball enough to get ahead in the count he can certainly use his slider as an out pitch.
He still needs to find a third quality major league pitch if he wants to be a starter long-term. That’s what’s preventing him from being an above-average starter at the moment.
Ultimately, German has to be graded based on his preseason expectations. He wasn’t supposed to be a member of this rotation. As such, he’ll get a slightly below-average grade, but we can’t be too harsh.