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Why are the Yankees sticking with Sonny Gray?

By Rucker Haringey

TORONTO, ON - JULY 6: Sonny Gray #55 of the New York Yankees is visited on the mound by pitching coach Larry Rothschild #58 in the second inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on July 6, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - JULY 6: Sonny Gray #55 of the New York Yankees is visited on the mound by pitching coach Larry Rothschild #58 in the second inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on July 6, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /
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Aaron Boone insists the Yankees are going to stick with Sonny Gray despite his poor pitching. The natural question is why.

Yankee fans are running out of ways to describe Sonny Gray’s putrid performance after his ugly two innings of work against the Blue Jays last night. Giving up six earned runs against a team like Toronto isn’t what Aaron Boone is looking for. Strangely, the Yankees manager has already committed to giving Gray another start in pinstripes.

When Boone was asked after the game if he was considering dropping Gray from the rotation, he quickly replied that making that move “isn’t something we’re (the team) considering at the moment.” Ostensibly, the organization doesn’t believe they have any better options. That isn’t a conclusion many fans will agree with, but there is some logic behind that way of thinking.

At the moment, the Yankees rotation is limited due to injury. Jordan Montgomery is out for the season with an elbow issue and Masahiro Tanaka is still on the disabled list with two groin strains. Tanaka will be back this week, but Montgomery is out for the season.

That’s already forced Boone to go with two starters he isn’t entirely comfortable with. Domingo German was moved from the bullpen to a starting spot when Montgomery was shut down. His 5.37 ERA on the season is only marginally better than Gray’s mark of 5.85. Frankly, if Gray wasn’t such a disaster, fans would be clamoring for the team to upgrade German’s spot in the rotation.

The team also gave Jonathan Loaisiga a chance to cover for Tanaka, and he did reasonably well. He wasn’t able to go deep into games, but he kept the Yankees in his starts. Unfortunately, his arm isn’t ready to handle the workload of being a starter for the rest of the season. He’s been sent down to the minors for the time being, but he may be brought up later in the year to give the rotation a boost. At any rate, he isn’t ready to provide the Yankees relief for Gray right now.

The elimination of Loaisiga as an immediate option leaves the Yankees with precious few options at the moment. The logical move would be to bring Justus Sheffield up from the minors, but the front office doesn’t seem to think he’s ready for the majors quite yet. If Gray continues to struggle, they may be forced to accelerate the lefty’s timeline.

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The ultimate point here is that until Brian Cashman is able to acquire a new starting pitcher via trade, the Yankees can reasonably claim Gray is their best internal option. That news won’t excite any Yankees fans, but it’s their unfortunate truth at the moment.

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