The Yankees are less than a week from Opening Day, as their starters begin their final spring tune-ups before the regular season, starting with Gerrit Cole on Friday evening.
Cole leads a rotation full of unknowns, particularly because of recent injury history, but so far, the projected starting rotation has remained healthy throughout spring, which is a win for the Yanks and manager Aaron Boone.
“I’m certainly encouraged by the stuff we’re seeing,” Boone said in a Zoom call with reporters on Friday. “Whether it’s March or September, I’d say everything matters. It’s not always a hardcore result that you’re looking for at certain times of the year, certainly in spring training…but a lot of the guys we brought in coming off of injuries or coming off of being out a significant chunk of last year…I would say it’s gone very well with those guys.”
Not only have those unknowns stayed healthy, but they have performed effectively as well. Corey Kluber, who was signed this offseason after throwing just 36.2 innings over the past two years due to injuries, has allowed just seven hits and two earned runs in 9.2 innings of work, while Jameson Taillon, coming off of his second Tommy John surgery, has allowed just one run in 8.1 innings with 14 strikeouts. Jordan Montgomery, who hasn’t thrown a full season since his rookie year in 2017 due to Tommy John surgery, has allowed just one run on four hits in 10 innings. All three will be crucial pieces to the Yankees rotation, and so far, they have showed that they could be up to the task.
“Stuff-wise, they’re throwing the ball that’s in line with who they are and who they can be,” Boone said. “I’ve been really excited so far about the bounceback and the recovery, and essentially these guys having kind of a normal spring with wear and tear and recovery and build-ups and things like that, so I’m excited about where it’s at.”
With all of Boone’s potential starters still healthy as spring training nears a close, he has had the luxury of mapping out what the early stages of the regular season could look like for his pitching staff, something that hasn’t been possible in recent springs due to early injuries to James Paxton, Luis Severino and others.
“Obviously it’s always going to evolve and change and things are going to change the equation along the way, but you try and have a little bit of a big picture view with some of these guys,” Boone said. “I kind of have a little bit of a road map of what I think the first couple weeks of April could look like, what potentially the first month could look like, and obviously baseball has a way of changing plans based on something unforeseen.”
Of course, the unforeseen can drastically change the current outlook of the rotation, especially considering recent history for the bulk of these arms. But for a team taking things day by day, the current outlook is a good one.
“We are just at the end of March, so that’ll be something we’re monitoring all throughout the season, but we’re excited where we’re at right now,” Boone said.
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