Exchanging Youth for Experience
Whereas Sale looks solid at the top of the Sox staff, the top is where the questions start for the Yankees’.
Severino looked great last season, but one year does not a career make. While he is very likely to answer a lot of questions with affirmative answers, he is still young enough to be in, and I’ll believe it when I see it, phase.
Tanaka, on the other hand, showed plenty the team did not want to see. Again, there is much more hope than fear among the Yankees that 2017’s 4.74 ERA was an aberration, but the fact remains that 4.74 was his ERA; talk about a “prove it to me” season.
Gray brings the fewest questions, especially as he is not being counted on as the Ace. His quicker delivery so far this Spring Training bodes well in that regard. But CC is at an age where every season is a question mark.
At some time in the not-too-distant future, Sabathia and the Yankees will reach a tipping point; we’ve seen it before. Last season Sabathia was a five or six innings pitcher, getting into at least the seventh inning only six times.
And only one of those was after June.
What if he turns into a four or five-inning pitcher who rarely reaches the sixth? Or a three or four inning pitcher? This is how careers sometimes wind down.
But at some point the team finds itself taxing its bullpen too much every fifth day to recover, and the trade-off of ERA for fewer and fewer IP is no longer worth it. Will that happen this year?
Monty In Control
If so, they will not have Jordan Montgomery to call up. And that’s because he has already won the fifth starter’s job. But if Sevvy is still in a prove it phase, where does that leave Monty?
He admitted in our interview earlier this year that he still needs to control his emotions:
That can be easier said than done. And it would surprise no one if Monty struggled at some point this season and needed some time in Triple-A. Who will the Yankees turn to if and when at least one of these starters needs time off?