Injuries to Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil forced the New York Yankees to get uncomfortable when deciding on their Opening Day rotation. Eventually, a strong spring training and a potential opt-out earned Carlos Carrasco a spot in the team's rotation. While Yankees fans were prepared to see if he had anything left in the tank, early returns suggest that it's time for a change.
I get the argument for keeping him in the rotation. He's been in it all year so far, there isn't an ideal replacement option, and the Yankees are a first-place team even with him not getting off to a great start.
However, Carrasco's early-season struggles combined with the pitcher he has been in recent years suggest a change must be made sooner rather than later.
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It's time for the Yankees to remove Carlos Carrasco from their rotation
While Carrasco was once a very serviceable mid-rotation arm, he is simply not that guy anymore. He had a 6.18 ERA in his previous 41 starts entering this season and has essentially been the same guy for the Yankees. Through seven appearances (six starts), Carrasco has a 5.90 ERA in 29 innings of work.
While ERA might not be the best indicator of early-season struggles given the small sample, a deeper dive into Carrasco's starts show why the Yankees are better off removing him from their rotation.
First and foremost, while he's a starter for them, he hasn't been able to give much length. Carrasco has completed five innings in only three of his six outings and has yet to complete six frames. Carrasco has done a somewhat decent job limiting walks, but he is not striking many guys out (17.3 percent strikeout rate) and is allowing a ton of home runs (5.5 percent home run rate). To put it plainly, his stuff is not good enough anymore to justify using him as a starter on a team trying to win the World Series.
While there isn't a clear replacement in New York's organization, that doesn't mean just sticking with a pitcher they know isn't going to get the job done. Whether it's using an opener in front of him or DFA'ing him and going with a guy like Ryan Yarbrough in his place, the Yankees cannot stick with the status quo and expect different results. He's struggled mightily in his month with the Yankees and hasn't been a viable big league starter since 2022. Eventually, enough is enough. That time is now.