The Yankees’ starting rotation is going to be a talking point all season, just as it has been all offseason – and it’s because of both what the Yankees did and didn’t do this winter.
One of the things they didn’t do was re-sign Masahiro Tanaka, who announced this week he will be returning to Japan to play for his former team, Rakuten. Instead, the Yankees filled two rotation vacancies by signing Corey Kluber to a one-year deal and trading for Jameson Taillon – and in talking to WFAN’s Moose & Maggie on Friday, GM Brian Cashman admitted Tanaka leaving was tough, but not re-signing him was a “two-for-one” in essence.
“As we move forward with the financial commitments we have, I had to be careful with the dollars we had. I ended up importing two starters instead, and doing so cost us the opportunity to retain some other players,” Cashman said. “Those are decisions that are difficult when we have to make them. With Masa, it’s disappointing that he didn’t get a chance to tip his cap one more time to the crowd because of COVID, but ultimately, we chose to go a different direction, and that manifested itself in signing Kluber and trading for Taillon. Hopefully those moves will pay off for us.”
Kluber and Taillon are risks based on recent health issues, and Cashman admitted that any questions anyone has about those additions are valid, but have been answered internally, at least on Kluber.
“We found as much comfort as we could to push through on those choices over others and the price tags associated with them,” Cashman said. “They’re valid questions to have, but in Kluber’s case, that gap got closed a lot because his personal trainer is now running our health side. We knew where he was in his progressions, and we watched him at the showcase that every team attended – he was clearly healthy. It came down to do we bet he continues to stay healthy – but I got a lot more comfort level when I found out there were a lot of other clubs heavily in on him, and the competition’s dollar amounts were right in line.”
That said, he knows the risk is high for a high reward.
“It doesn’t guarantee a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but you get the best info you can and go off that,” Cashman said. “It wasn’t long ago he was an elite starter. Do I expect that to come back? I won’t say that, but can get back to close to where he was? If he does, we’ll take it.”
Cashman also spoke about Domingo German, which you can read more about here, and also had positive news on Luis Severino’s rehab from Tommy John surgery.
“He’s doing well. All rehabs have twists and turns, and the pandemic has created that here, but he’s on schedule, so I’d say toward the end of July is a safe range (for a return),” Cashman said. “So, August, September, and October will hopefully be successful months for him, as a booster rocket we can deploy as we see fit. The important thing is that when we’re ready to unleash him, he’s equipped and ready to do so, and do so at his levels, because he was an impact starter for us before the injury.”
And as for the bullpen? Cashman couldn’t speak to Darren O’Day because “nothing is official there,” but did offer a take on trading Adam Ottavino to Boston.
“The purpose of trading Otto, even to Boston, was to allow ourselves to free up some financial opportunities and re-deploy them, potentially. How that manifests itself is to be determined,” Cashman said. “We recognize Otto was better than the year he just had and Boston will be the beneficiary of that, but we made the move and added a prospect there so we could repackage ourselves.”
Listen to Cashman’s entire interview with Moose & Maggie below!
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