Yankees could use a rotation upgrade (we're looking at you, Nestor Cortes)
New York Yankees starting pitcher Luis Gil delivers during the third inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola) Credit: Chris Szagola
With the trade for Jazz Chisholm Jr., the return of Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge turning ballparks into pinball machines, the recent distractions made it easier to overlook the fact that the Yankees’ rotation has been running on fumes for most of the past two months.
And with Tuesday’s 6 p.m. trade deadline rapidly approaching as the Yankees began a series against the Phillies on Monday night, general manager Brian Cashman was running out of time to do something about it.
Of course, importing a front-line starting pitcher is no easy task when it’s the No. 1 item on most team’s shopping lists come late July. Or even a mid-rotation arm, for that matter.
In early June, when the Yankees were still rolling and the starters were putting together a historic run, such a need wasn’t even on Cashman’s radar.
But then the Yankees fell off a cliff in every department, and a rotation that had hummed along with machine-like efficiency began leaking oil — aside from two recent exceptions, with Carlos Rodon’s Fenway gem on Sunday night followed by Luis Gil earning his 11th win on Monday (three runs, eight strikeouts, 5 1/3 Innings) in the Yankees’ 14-4 rout of the Phillies.
Up until that point, the rotation’s 6.09 ERA since June 15 was dead last in the majors, its opponents’ batting average (.285) was the second-highest and its 1.51 WHIP was the third-worst.
Rodon being the unlikely savior of the past week — even outclassing the reigning Cy Young Award winner on the staff, as Gerrit Cole was hammered by the Mets — was tough to wrap our brain around. But it also put the scope of the rotation’s issues in perspective.
“I feel like they’re all capable of taking the ball every fifth day and deliver it for us,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Hopefully we can get it turned around, get us more in line and consistent like we were over the first couple of months.”
Then again, hope isn’t a strategy, which is why the Yankees reportedly turned their focus to the group’s weakest link — Nestor Cortes — as the spot to upgrade with less than 24 hours to do so. Cortes has a 10.13 ERA in his last three starts, allowing 24 hits in 13 1⁄3 innings. Opponents are Ted Williams against Cortes, denting him at a .400 clip, with a Judge-ian 1.201 OPS.
To that end, the Yankees have discussed the Tigers’ Jack Flaherty — who was scratched from Monday’s start and could be traded soon — and even touched base with the Giants about Blake Snell, according to MLB Network.
As you may recall, Cashman stayed out of the free-agent bidding for Snell, who didn’t sign until late March, but he’s pitching like the 2023 NL Cy Young Award winner again. Snell has a 0.75 ERA and 30 strikeouts (in 24 innings) in his last four starts, striking out 15 in six innings his last time out.
Flaherty, who is 7-5 with a 2.95 ERA in 18 starts, is priced to move, signed to a one-year deal with roughly $5 million remaining for this season. Snell is considerably more expensive at $32 million for this year; he likely will opt out of his $30 million deal for 2025.
Replacing Cortes with either one would seem to be a big improvement, although Flaherty did have a bumpy stay in the AL East last year after his deadline trade to the Orioles (1-3, 6.75 ERA in nine starts). And swapping out Cortes doesn’t necessarily end the uncertainty for the rotation as a whole.
Cole appeared to be back to his Cy Young self before the Mets roughed him up for the second time in a month, and he sounds as if he’s healthy, so we’ll say he’s solid as the ace.
Rodon is a $162 million wild card, capable of either dominating or self-destructing on any given night.
Like Cortes, Marcus Stroman got dinged up at Fenway. He hasn’t come up with a quality start since June 22 and has a 5.64 ERA in his last five starts while averaging 4.4 innings.
The only red flag for Gil is his snowballing workload — he’s now up to a career single-season high of 112 2⁄3 innings after Monday’s win at Citizens Bank Park — but he apparently has corrected his late June glitch. In his last four starts, Gil has a 2.35 ERA with 30 strikeouts in 23 innings.
That seemingly has put Gil’s fatigue concerns to rest for the moment, but he’s in uncharted territory, even if he did stop by the manager’s office last weekend to let Boone know he’s physically fine.
“I just told him that I feel ready for a long season,” Gil said through an interpreter Monday night. “For a full, complete season.”
Boone sounded equally optimistic.
“It can always change,” he said. “But there’s been a couple of times where I’ve pulled him back and not pushed him in a certain outing, with the end game in mind a little bit . . . We’re always paying attention.”
Clarke Schmidt (lat muscle strain) is on the distant horizon, perhaps September. But the Yankees don’t feel as if they can wait that long to fix a problem that doesn’t seem to be going away.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
