Yankees $37 Million All-Star Sends Message on Surprise Demotion

A three-game Yankees winning streak, coupled with an Orioles slump, has propelled New York to a three-game lead in the American League East and set up the Bombers for a possibly deep run into the MLB playoffs. But the team is still facing a notable challenge: Filling out the pitching rotation for the postseason.

The Yankees are fortunate to have a deep group of potential starters. The problem, though, is that each of those potential starters has some significant flaw that could warrant them being pulled from the rotation. Even ace Gerrit Cole, the most accomplished playoff pitcher on the staff, missed most of the season with an arm injury. He’ll start Game 1 for the Yankees, but he does come with an injury asterisk.

After Cole, the rotation is open. Nestor Cortes—the Opening Day starter—took a turn as a long reliever last week, and now the Yankees have announced that Marcus Stroman will move to the bullpen rather than make his next scheduled start.

But where Cortes was not happy about moving to a relief role, manager Aaron Boone said that Stroman’s reaction was much different.

Marcus Stroman’s Message to Aaron Boone

From a post by Yankees beat writer Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, Boone said of Stroman’s demotion:

“Stro has been so good for us and so good in the room. He’s all about that team in there and all about the guys in there. Basically, his message to me is, ‘Whatever you need, and I’ll be ready to go.’ I think he just wants to be part of a winner.”

Stroman has not been bad, for the most part, for the Yankees this year. He has made 28 starts, third-most on the team, and has a 10-8 record with a 4.08 ERA. Those numbers are not far off what he posted last season, when he was an All-Star who went 10-9 for the Cubs before signing a two-year, $37 million contract with the Yankees.

Stroman had a brilliant start to the season, going 6-2, with a 2.82 ERA through his first 14 starts, but has gone 4-6 with a 5.50 ERA since.

Boone said Stroman’s move is not necessarily permanent. He could still be a playoff starter.

“I’ll try to put him in the best position, make sure we try to communicate well with him,” Boone said, via the New York Post. “He and I spoke [Thursday] about it, nothing is necessarily permanent, but with the off day [coming up Monday], I want to have us go five at least this next turn and maybe the next time around, too. We’ll see.”

Yankees Playoff Rotation Still Undecided

After Cole, it is likely that both Carlos Rodon and Luis Gil will have spots in the Yankees playoff rotation. Rodon has gone 14-9 this year but does have a spotty playoff history, appearing in two games with the White Sox (one start) and allowing an ERA of 13.50.

Gil has been a standout at 13-6 with a 3.18 ERA this season, a big part of the reason the Yankees were able to withstand the loss of Cole to his arm injury early in the year. But Gil is coming off of Tommy John surgery last year and never has pitched the 135.2 innings he has racked up this season.

While Cortes could yet earn a spot in the rotation, Clarke Schmidt is the wild card—he went out in May with a lat strain but has come back with two starts in which he gave up and ERA of 1.74 in 10.1 innings.