Isn’t it kind of interesting that Marcus Stroman might not be good enough to be one of the Yankees’ four playoff starters?
If you recall, that was the crux of the argument between Brian Cashman and Stroman when the Yankees failed to acquire the right-handed pitcher at the trade deadline in 2019. The Yankees GM said afterwards that he didn’t want to pay a high price to acquire Stroman because he would have relegated to relief pitching in the postseason.
Stroman responded by attacking Cashman on social media over the years, especially when he faltered in the postseason. Cashman and Stroman had to erase that past as part of signing the two-year, $37 million contract.
But with the schedule three-quarters over, Stroman is all but certain to not be in the Yankees’ postseason rotation. He’s posted a 7.56 ERA and a 1.000 OPS in his past six starts and has looked like a marathon runner out of gas at 20 mph. He was held up from Thursday until Sunday’s series finale against the Rangers to work on his mechanics. He feels it’s a glitch, not fatigue, that can be fixed.
Part of the Yankees’ remaining games this season will be deciding who their playoff starting pitchers will be, whether they start Game 3 or Game 5. So the 36 hours on Saturday and Sunday at Yankee Stadium were intriguing, from Clark Schmidt’s live batting practice to Carlos Rodon in the first game of the doubleheader to Gerrit Cole in the nightcap and Stroman in the closing out game.
Schmidt threw 20 pitches on Wednesday and 25 on Saturday without a rest. Schmidt said he would have been able to get outs in real games if he had pitched full games against rehab players Jon Berti, Anthony Rizzo and Jose Trevino. Pitcher Aaron Boone said he was excited about the performance. Discussions are still ongoing about when and how many rehab games Schmidt will play, but there is growing expectation he will return to the starting rotation by the end of the month.
When Schmidt was sidelined with a back injury, Boone called him “a top 10 or 15 starter in the league.” That kind of pitcher can thrive in the postseason. Still, the only certainty at this point is Cole, if he’s healthy. Because he is Cole. That pedigree will win him the Cy Young award, even if it didn’t win him last season. The rest is up in the air. Stroman’s season isn’t over, but can he and Nestor Cortes bounce back? Can Luis Gil, who hasn’t pitched much of the last two seasons, make it to the finish line strong? And can Carlos Rodon continue his recent impressive record in the midst of a tough stretch of getting knocked out and then promoted in New York?
Rodon wavered between unhealthy, unsuccessful and at times unprofessional play in his 2023 Yankees debut. He said it became a mental game to show he was “better than how I was on the field last year and want to prove that I’m still as good a pitcher as I’ve been.”
He started well and then was awful, but after holding a confused Rangers team scoreless over 5 2/3 innings in an 8-0 victory, he is hitting .197 with a 2.22 ERA over four straight games.
Watching Rodon’s game on Saturday, I saw some positives and some reasons why he may not have been fully trusted. Rodon’s pitches are excellent, especially his ability to throw his fastball to either corner and increase the usage and reliability of his changeup. He allowed just three singles.
But Rodon also walked five batters, including to Wyatt Langford, who didn’t swing at any of the six pitches he was thrown in the second inning. Langford was thrown seven pitches and swung only once while trying to strike out to close out the third inning. Rodon yelled at Langford to swing, and home plate umpire Adam Hamari initially seemed to think it was aimed at Langford, as Boone rushed out as well. Risking an ejection in the third inning of the first game of a doubleheader revealed Rodon’s struggle with emotions he admits he still has.
Can he get his pitches and his moods under control to pitch at his best? Those seem like the final hurdles, as the oft-injured Rodon is durable into 2024. He’s made every start and threw a Yankees-high 110 pitches on Saturday.
And Rodon benefited from the team’s stellar at-bats. The Yankees had 12 hits in Opening Day, 10 of which were with two strikes. Five of his six walks and the only hit-by-pitch came with full counts. Aaron Judge was down 1-2, 1-2 and 0-2 in his first three at-bats, fouling off a total of six two-strike pitches and allowing three hits while throwing a total of 23 pitches. Austin Wells fought his way back from 1-2 and 0-2 down to hit the big hits behind Judge in the game: a two-run double in the third inning and a two-run single in the fourth.
The lead has grown thanks to Rodon, and now there’s more confidence in him and the confidence he can be part of the starting rotation come postseason.
