It was the middle of Spring Training for the 2024 MLB season and the New York Yankees and their fans couldn’t be more hyped for a season. OF Juan Soto was brought in via trade with the San Diego Padres. The Yanks also shored up the outfield by adding depth in Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham. SP Marcus Stroman was signed to add depth in the rotation behind the reigning AL Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole and lefty Carlos Rodon. Nestor Cortes is healthy. We get to see how SS Anthony Volpe looks in his second season. Captain Aaron Judge looks good to go. Everything appeared to be clicking.
Until Cole news dropped, the ace dealing with elbow discomfort and inflammation. To start the season, Cole landed on the 60-day injured list. That isn’t a nightmare scenario but it’s not great. There were worries Cole would need Tommy John surgery, which would end his 2024. It would also mean the 33-year-old ace you’re paying $36 million per season may not be the same again.
As a result, Cole was unable to start on Opening Day last Thursday vs. the Houston Astros. Cortes got the nod in his stead and the Yankees entered the season with a rotation of Cortes, Rodon, Stroman, Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil. While the lineup was expected to be deeper/better, the pitching staff wasn’t inspiring much confidence.
Well, until the Yankees went out and swept the Astros in four games to open 2024. Let’s take a look at how the Yankees’ rotation and bullpen was able to find success vs. Houston to open the season.
Yankees rotation
The overall performance of the rotation was good, not great. But we knew the lineup would be better, so really around league average is what the Yankees needed out of the starters. While no one went too deep into their start, no one got shelled. It was a lot of “bend but don’t break” against the Astros tough lineup. The rotation gave up a lot of contact but not a lot of extra base hits. Collectively the entire pitching staff kept to a 2.00 ERA in four games. The starters allowed six doubles and two HRs in that stretch. The bullpen gave up no XBH and only walked five batters in 15.1 innings pitched.
Stroman allowed three runs but none were earned. Rodon didn’t last long in his start and gave up five hits and three walks. He also was able to work out of trouble and not let the game get out of hand. The Yanks would eventually come back down 1-0 late and pull away in a 7-1 win. Cortes struggled but was also thrust into a pressure-packed situation. He did strike out five in five innings and settled in nicely with his off-speed stuff. Schmidt’s performance was a bit concerning. He gave up a HR more fly balls than grounders. But also had good punch-out stuff with five Ks in 5.1 IP.
We’ll see Luis Gil’s first start of the season against the Diamondbacks on Monday night. Gil was impressive this Spring and enters the season with high expectations as the five-man in the rotation. If Gil can step up and give the Yankees quality starts, it will go a long way with Cole out until the Summer.
Yankees Bullpen
Okay, let’s talk about the bullpen. The Yankees have always been at their best overall as a team when the bullpen is deep. The bullpen was flawless vs. the Astros. In 15.1 IP, no one gave up a run. What’s even more impressive is Jonathan Loaisiga and Clay Holmes (the Yankees two best relievers) allowed a combined 12 hits over 6 IP. That’s not ideal but the two were also able to work out of trouble on multiple occasions in the series. Once they settle down, things should be less hectic.
Ian Hamilton was the most impressive of the Yankees bullpen arms and he appears to be the Michael King replacement to set up Holmes. Hamilton pitched 3.0 innings of clean work, only allowing one hit with three strikeouts. It’s important to remember this is all against a very good Astros lineup that has notoriously had the Yankees number since 2017. Caleb Ferguson pitched well as the left-specialist replacement for Wandy Peralta.
Perhaps the most important member of the pen, Luke Weaver also looked fantastic. It will be interesting to see if manager Aaron Boone opts for more bullpen games where Gil or Weaver goes out as a starter for 3-4 innings. It could help give the rest of the rotation additional rest, which feels ideal given Cole’s situation. Depending on how Gil looks Monday, we could see Weaver in the rotation at some point early in the season.
Final Thoughts
The biggest takeaway overall for the Yankees in the sweep is that this was so unlike the past handful of seasons. A year or two ago, those Yankees teams would have caved or not been able to find the hits to mount a comeback. This Yankees team did that on three occasions in the span of four days. And a lot of the reason why was because the pitching staff kept the offense within striking distance. There were times where the Astros could have opened things up. That didn’t happen. Let’s also not forget some great plays in the outfield by Soto and Verdugo. But if we were to give the Yankees’ pitching staff a grade through four games, it has to be an A given the circumstances.
The D-Backs will be a big test coming up. We’ll see if the Yankees can carry this momentum into Arizona.
