With Sonny Gray’s rough start on Wednesday and CC Sabathia’s rough start on Thursday, the New York Yankees pitching depth has been stretched thin, leading to Chance Adams’ debut on Saturday against the Boston Red Sox
This was certainly not the plan for New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman. When they traded for Lance Lynn before the trade deadline and flipped Adam Warren to the Seattle Mariners for more international money slots, Lynn was supposed to be depth. With Sonny Gray‘s outing on Wednesday, that depth was compromised, with Lynn having to go four plus in relief. With CC Sabathia‘s rough outing last night, Luis Cessa had to give the club length again.
Per MLBpipeline.com, 21 of the New York Yankees top 30 prospects are pitchers. Jonathan Loaisiga and Domingo Acevedo are on this list, on the 40-man roster but also hurt. Justus Sheffield is their top prospect, but he pitched yesterday in AAA. So who do they turn to?
Can further earlier report: Chance Adams has been told he is being called up to start Saturday #Yankees
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) August 3, 2018
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is the 13th ranked prospect on the list, and was going to be added to the 40 man roster after the season anyway, so why not now right?
Adams struggled in AAA for the first two months, but has been much better over the past two months, going 2-1 with a 3.34 ERA in June and 0-2 with a 3.33 ERA in July. He’s struck out 53 in 54 innings. In his last start, he went 7.1 innings, including seven perfect innings, striking out eight, giving up one run and two hits.
If Sheffield hadn’t pitched, he makes this start tomorrow and maybe the New York Yankees should have pushed him back a day or two just in case, but you cant anticipate Gray and Sabathia pitching so badly and Gray and Lynn switching roles.
This is probably a one and done situation for Adams, however, if he pitches well, I think it can move him up in the pecking order, not only for this season, but for 2019 as well.