The Yankees didn’t do much to address the starting rotation this offseason, in fact doing nothing at all, but FanGraphs still thinks highly of the group, so much so that it is predicted to finish the season with the highest WAR in all of baseball.
That’s right, despite all the question marks, including the health of Luis Severino, Jameson Taillon, and Domingo German, the Yanks are projected to be the best in the bigs in the rotation department, hardly expected after the crosstown rival Mets added Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt behind Jacob deGrom (who is now injured).
How did they come to that projection? Well, FanGraphs unsurprisingly expects big things out of gerrit Cole in 2022, projecting the ace to post a 3.04 ERA and 5.7 WAR while tossing 199 innings. Cole struggled down the stretch last season, but many believe that was tied to his hamstring injury, as he had already been back to posting dominant numbers after the sticky substance crackdown.
FanGraphs also sees a strong bounceback season for Luis Severino, arguably the biggest X-factor on the Yankees this season. He is projected to throw 137 innings and post a 3.83 ERA, good for 2.4 WAR. Not bad for a former Cy Young candidate who hasn’t thrown a full season since 2018. Of course, health will be the determining factor, as he had a scare last week when he experienced general soreness and had a spring start pushed back, but he said he felt strong after his final outing of spring training.
Jordan Montgomery and Jameson Taillon are projected to combine for 304 innings and 4.7 WAR, the latter coming off offseason ankle surgery.
The Mets are projected to finish fourth in the league in ERA.
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