Aaron Boone: There should be some ‘excitement about the potential’ of Yankees starting pitchers
The Yankees believed the rotation, led by Gerrit Cole, was going to do well enough to return to the playoffs and avenge an ALCS exit.
But other than Cole, who manager Aaron Boone said is the American Cy Young in his eyes, there has been little else.
“I think going into this year we felt like it had the chance to be a real strength for us, obviously, we got hit by the injury bug, we got hit by some struggling performance at different times,” the skipper said before Wednesday night’s game against Toronto.
Other than Cole and Clarke Schmidt, who has made 30 starts and pitched 151 innings on the season, no starter has gone over 110 innings.
Injuries stole the first half of Carlos Rodon’s (58 innings) debut season in the Bronx and numerous IL stints did the same for much of Luis Severino’s (89.1) and Nestor Cortes’ (63.1) year, as well. And add Domingo German’s (108.2) issues that have limited his availability.
Plus that bunch has generally failed to pitch well when they were healthy. Other than Cole, no starter has an ERA under 4.50 and all have below-average ERA+ on the year.
For his part, Cole has pitched to an AL-leading 2.81 ERA (155 ERA+) over 192.0 innings with 208 strikeouts to go along with a 1.047 WHIP and 3.30 FIP. The 33-year-old will likely have two more starts to solidify his case, including making his 32nd start of the year in Thursday's series finale with the Blue Jays.
But heading into the 2024 season, Boone said that depth “has a chance to be outstanding.”
“But I think if you look at the potential people that would fill that rotation, it’s got a chance to be excellent,” he said. “We also feel like the next layer of guys kinda knocking on that door… even beyond [Jhony] Brito and [Randy] Vasquez, but the next layer of guys in Double-A, Triple-A, we feel like have the chance to be contributors in that, as well.”
Boone added, “It didn’t work out like we expected this year, but when you look at the people there should be some excitement about the potential of those guys. We just, obviously, gotta get ‘em healthy, get ‘em posting and get ‘em performing at a level we expect.”
One of those players who has entered the conversation for next season is Michael King, who was scheduled to make his seventh start of the season on Wednesday night against the Blue Jays. Boone added that he sees the right-hander as a starting pitcher heading into the offseason.
“You never know how the offseason is gonna unfold, but my thought is, he’s gonna enter into the offseason as a starting pitcher and we’ll see how everything unfolds from there and how kinda winter he has and all that,” the manager said. “But I’m looking at him as a starter.”
On how King has held up as a starter going deeper into games, Boone said the 28-year-old’s fastball command with both his two and four-seamer working effectively to both sides of the plate has played a big factor.
“But as we’ve seen his pitch [count] climb, stuff-wise – I think from fastball, slider, change – has all been in line with who he was out of the bullpen, now and, obviously, in bigger chunks,” he said. “It’s been good seeing him as he’s been buit up here just how well he’s performed, and for the most part, how well he’s executed.”
