The Yankees, operating with a razor thin starting rotation, have announced their probables for their upcoming series against the Mariners, which kicks off Thursday night.
Well, almost all of their probables.
Friday’s starter is still “up in the air,” but when the series begins on Thursday, Nestor Cortes Jr. will be the starter, and Andrew Heaney will make his second Yankees start on Saturday before Luis Gil returns to wrap up the series on Sunday.
Cortes was taken out of his starting role and put back into the bullpen when Heaney was acquired just before the trade deadline, but with Domingo German on the IL with a shoulder strain and both Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery testing positive for COVID-19, the Yanks need all the help they can get.
Heaney was bombed for four home runs in his Yankee debut on Monday and will look to rebound, while Gil was superb in his big-league debut on Tuesday, tossing six shutout innings as a replacement player for Cole before being returned to Triple-A.
The Yankees now have Cole, Montgomery, German, Corey Kluber and Luis Severino all unavailable, with Jameson Taillon being the lone arm standing from the Opening Day rotation. But Severino threw a rehab assignment with Double-A Somerset on Tuesday night, and Boone said the righty will likely make two more rehab starts before the Yankees will evaluate whether he is ready to make his season debut.
Severino hasn’t pitched in a big-league game since game three of the 2019 ALCS.
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