Lennon: Yankees' rotation suddenly needs an upgrade
Yankees manager Aaron Boone takes the ball from Brendan Beck during the fourth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The thought of the Yankees trading for elite rotation help, such as Tigers ace Tarik Skubal or Joe Ryan, who will start Sunday’s series finale for the Twins, didn’t seem to be a front-burner issue as recently as a few weeks ago.
On paper, the Yankees had an abundance of starting pitchers, lined up like planes at LaGuardia during rush hour, with promising depth that stretched down to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. There were other boxes to check, namely an offensive upgrade at catcher and the annual bullpen re-stock, the latter being the signature deadline strategy of general manager Brian Cashman.
Then Brendan Beck arrived on loan from the RailRiders and staged his own July Fourth fireworks show in the Yankees’ sobering 11-4 loss to the Twins on Saturday, and suddenly Cashman probably should be rethinking his priorities.
No offense to Beck, currently No. 21 on the team’s prospect list, as he was rushed up as the last-minute replacement for Carlos Rodon, who landed on the injured list a day earlier with elbow inflammation. But on a day when they hit six home runs, the Twins ripped him for a 5-0 lead before he could get five outs, a shocking barrage that featured three homers, including back-to-back shots by Nos. 8 and 9 hitters Luke Keaschall and Alex Jackson.
At that point, the boos were even louder than the Twins' bats. The Yankees’ restless fan base had seen this movie before — quite often during their seven-game losing skid — and Friday’s streak-snapping victory didn’t buy much patience for the shell-shocked rookie.
“Obviously, not good results,” said Beck, who went 3-0 with a 1.24 ERA in five June starts for Scranton. “Putting us in a hole early, making the defense stand out there for a long time in the first, taking the crowd out of it. Not the way we want to start the game on an exciting day at the yard.”
But this isn’t about Beck, who wound up with Saturday’s assignment — and made his MLB starting debut — only because Elmer Rodriguez, the usual fill-in, wasn’t on turn to do so. It’s more of a big-picture problem as to how much faith the Yankees can have in a rotation that’s beginning to sprout more red flags as the season progresses.
Ideally, the ceiling of the Yankees’ starting staff remains very high. It’s the potential for trapdoors in the floor that feel worrisome with a commodity that’s perilously fragile under the best-case scenarios.
We’ve already mentioned Rodon, who began the season six weeks late coming back from an offseason elbow cleanup yet was sailing along with a 3.30 ERA in nine starts before abruptly coming down with the vague diagnosis of elbow inflammation. Could be minor, as the Yankees insist. But with no definite timeline for a return — and the injury involving an elbow — he gets a question mark.
As far as Max Fried is concerned — remember him? — Saturday’s update sounded promising, with the $218 million lefty scheduled for another 35-pitch live batting-practice session Sunday and a minor-league rehab assignment likely to follow soon after. Fried has reported no issues with his left elbow since the bone bruise cleared up, and if all goes according to plan, he should be ready to rejoin the rotation in roughly a month.
“Feeling healthy, so it’s been really encouraging,” he said before Saturday’s game. “Obviously, I would love to be able to just snap my fingers and be back out there. But with being a starting pitcher, it takes a little bit to have the build-up.”
The Yankees could hasten Fried’s return by activating him as a 60-pitch starter and letting the process continue at the major-league level, but manager Aaron Boone was uncertain of what that plan would be just yet. Bottom line, Fried is projected to be back around the Aug. 3 trade deadline, so knowing his status now is just an educated guess.
Of greater concern? How do the Yankees bridge that month between now and Fried’s return, especially with Cam Schlittler looking less than superhuman lately and Gerrit Cole not exactly Cy Young Award-caliber as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery.
As expected, Schlittler was named to the All-Star team Saturday and deserves to start the Midsummer Classic, given his stellar first half (AL-leading 2.08 ERA, which was 1.62 before he allowed four homers and six runs in four innings against the Tigers last Tuesday).
But Schlittler’s workload is piling up fast. He’s already at 108 innings over 18 starts after pitching 149 last season, and for a guy who makes his living throwing 100-mph fastballs, that eventually could take a toll. In his last two starts, Schlittler has lasted a total of nine innings, allowing 12 hits, five homers and 10 runs, although only six were earned.
“Halfway through, I got a lot of innings so far,” Schlittler said Saturday. “The goal is to get not double that, but close to it, so I feel like I’ve built that workload up pretty well over the last two or three years. There’s no reason that I should be limited.”
Boone wouldn’t say so, but the Yankees no doubt would prefer to have Schlittler not pitch in the All-Star Game and save his bullets for the second half. As for Cole, he has said his post-Tommy John surgery performance is not going to be a linear climb, with the goal being to peak during the stretch run and into October.
All of this leaves plenty of room for another ace, whether it’s back-to-back Cy Young Award winner Skubal — who would be a rental — or Ryan, who is due roughly $3 million for the remainder of this season and has a $13 million mutual option for 2027.
Cashman has shown the willingness to double down on his strengths, which is how Fried wound up in the Bronx. But the Yankees’ rotation hasn’t been pitching like the sure thing we expected it to be at this point in the season, so upgrading this group now feels like a necessity rather than a luxury.
Beck didn’t create this crisis by lighting the fuse to Saturday’s blowout. His damaging cameo, however, just made it more real.
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.
