New York Yankees: An ‘Opener’ Could Relieve Lack of Starter Depth
With Luis Severino and CC Sabathia set to miss time to start the season, should the New York Yankees consider turning to an “Opener”?
The strongest component of the New York Yankees – aside from an abundance of power hitters – is the arsenal of arms available out of the bullpen. Rated by far the best bullpen in baseball based on the “Steamer Projection System” on FanGraphs, the Yankees are looking to improve upon an already historic bullpen in 2018.
Now, with two starters down to start the season – CC Sabathia be serving a suspension and Luis Severino is dealing with a rotator cuff injury – the Yankees might have to rely on their bullpen to make up for their lack of SP depth.
Last season, the Tampa Bay Rays introduced to the world a highly controversial strategy in baseball called the “opener”. Much like a relief pitcher is used to close out games, this strategy utilizes a reliever to open games in an effort to combat high scoring in the first inning.
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Using the strategy, the Tampa Bay Rays experienced instant success. In fact, the team went from having a .488 W-L% pre-opener to a .580 W-L% post-opener.
That was with a 6th ranked bullpen in terms of fWAR.
What’s more, the Yankees have plenty of relievers with starting experience. Dellin Betances, for example, was a starter before being moved to the bullpen. As was Chad Green and Adam Ottavino for that matter.
So, the experience won’t come so much as a surprise as it must have been for Sergio Romo, who had never before started a game at the MLB level before being used as an “opener” five times last season.
More importantly, the New York Yankees won’t have to rely on an “opener” for an extended period of time because both Severino and Sabathia are only expected to miss one, maybe two starts.
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So, why not give the strategy a try? You’ve got the arms, might as well use them.