New York Yankees: Should Chad Green be stretched out as a starter during Spring Training?

The New York Yankees have a deep bullpen, should they stretch out Chad Green as a starter during Spring Training?

The strength of the New York Yankees is their bullpen and it got even stronger this off-season. They re-signed Zach Britton and added Adam Ottavino, combined with Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances and Jonathan Holder. They also have Chad Green, who came up as a starter but has excelled over the past couple of seasons out of the bullpen.

The New York Yankees do not have a ton of starting pitching depth. Luis Severino was up and down last year. Newly acquired James Paxton has had health issues in the past. Masahiro Tanaka is pitching with a ticking time bomb in his elbow. CC Sabathia had heart surgery this off-season.

With this in mind, should the New York Yankees consider stretching out Chad Green this spring with the possibility of a starting role?

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

The New York Yankees starting pitching depth outside of their top five consists of Luis Cessa, who is out of options and prospects Chance Adams, Domingo German and Jonathan Loaisiga. They are all guys the New York Yankees like, but they don’t have a ton of big league experience.

Everyone’s stuff plays up out of the bullpen, compared to being a starter. Shorter bursts. More of an opportunity to air it out. Here are Chad Green’s numbers as a starter and reliever at the major league level:

Starter: nine games 2-4 6.10 ERA 1.51 WHIP

Reliever: 106 games 13-3  1.95 ERA 0.89 WHIP

Now, Green having more experience as a major leaguer, may help him pitch better as a starter now. He’s only started one game since 2017. In fact, Green came into camp last season as a starting pitcher, but became a member of the bullpen for the duration of 2018.

To me, there is no reason why the New York Yankees shouldn’t consider stretching out Green as a starter during spring training and giving it one last shot. They have incredible bullpen depth, not to mention prospects like Stephen Tarpley out of the bullpen. If Green shows he can handle the role, the New York Yankees have to think about Green starting a game or two at some point during 2019, maybe even as an opener if they want to go that route.

This should be the last year they try it though. Once they decide he should start that should be it for the experiment.