3 Yankees rotation replacement after Carlos Rodón and Frankie Montas injuries

Yankees: Who will step up for Carlos Rodón and Freddie Montas?

RHP Domingo German

This might be the most obvious choice to fill one of the gaps. German was originally expected to be bumped down into the long relief role before the news of Montas’ injury, but an opportunity has opened for the former 18-win pitcher.

He has always been a consistent sub-4 era pitcher, who is very much of a strikeout pitcher. He has a career strikeout percentage of 24.7 (FanGraphs stats) and has had a walk rate of 6.6 percent or less in the last three seasons.

When balls are put in play, that is where the damage comes. He has a career BABIP of .272, which is somewhat high. However, his control and K numbers are good enough to be consistent as long as the Yankees’ offense can score runs.

German’s best and most used pitch is his curveball. It’s a straight 12-6 curve, which batters get hits on at a clip of .219. That is his most effective pitch, while his fastball looks like one of the worst in the league. That fastball is one of the 90 worst pitches in the league (BaseballSavant) in terms of weighted run value. It got hit for a .400 batting average, and hitters slugged .569 off of it. Hopefully, German will be able to throw for more fastballs and command the zone with it as he does with his curveball.

Although German is a consistent pitcher, he had legal incidents causing him to be suspended for 81 games in 2019 and 2020 for a domestic violence incident that was aimed towards his then-girlfriend. Although he did formally apologize to his teammates and Yankees staff, he acknowledged that teammates will never truly look at him the same, which in my opinion has led to him being pushed down the pecking order.

After making multiple big trades last year which involved pitching prospects like Hayden Wesneski, J.P. Sears, and Ken Waldichuk, the Yankess have taken a hit in total pitching depth. They could be forced to rely heavily on German to fill the gaps.