The Yankees' rotation has stepped up in the absence of Gerrit Cole

05/05/2024 13:00

Questions abounded when the Yankees' ace went down, but his rotation-mates have stepped up in his absence.

When Gerrit Cole was shut down with elbow inflammation back in March, a huge cloud of doubt surrounded the Yankees' pitching outlook for the 2024 season. Losing a reigning Cy Young winner for any significant period will always be a blow to whichever team suffers it, but particularly when considering non-Cole numbers this staff put up last year, the situation seemed especially dire.

Yet, a little over a month into the season, the Yankees are not only surviving Cole's absence, but even thriving despite it. The 22-13 Yankees have the second-best ERA in the American League.

Cue that Moneyball scene, with a small adjustment: Is there another pitcher in the world like Gerrit Cole? No. And if there was, could we find him at this point? Also, no. So what we're going to do is recreate him in the aggregate.

Even in his best form, Cole last season could only do so much to make up for the underwhelming numbers of quite literally every other starter on that team, apart from late-season Michael King. The Yankees went on to finish the year with the eighth-best team ERA in the American League.

Jump ahead to 2024, and the scenario has flipped. The Yankees right now don't have any Cy Young candidates, but every starter is working on nearly getting the most out of their skill set. Every starter has managed to keep his ERA well under four. Though neither is coming off one of their best starts, both Carlos Rodón and Nestor Cortes have at least been closer to their peak form than the form they showed last year. Marcus Stroman and Clarke Schmidt have delivered exactly what was asked of them, while Luis Gil has flashed incredible potential at times.

Now, if we're being entirely honest, there are some cracks in the peripherals of some of the Yankees' starters. Schmidt and Stroman have a similar issue: they're getting by with WHIP marks far too high for any starter with a sub-4.00 ERA. And they both need to bring down their walk rate, Schmidt's currently at 10.0 percent and Stroman at 12.4.

And speaking of walk rates, Gil's control is the elephant in the room, but he, unlike those other two arms, has two things going for him that give him far more leeway in terms of the occasional free pass. Gil has been and should continue to put up far superior numbers in terms of limiting hits and also as far as missing bats. Gil's strikeout stuff, which has buoyed him to an 11.6 K/9, can negate some of those pesky bases on balls.

But even if some regression could be due for the Yankee rotation, what's done is done. In aggregate, they've stepped up more than anyone could have hoped for when Cole went down. They've bought time for Cole to get healthy, and now that the ace is back throwing off a mound again, it seems he's starting to draw closer to a return.

Maybe the group won't maintain this level of play all the way up to Cole's debut, which, if he can ramp up without a setback (fingers crossed) should come next month. That's where Cole himself comes in; perhaps once this rotation starts to flag a little bit, their leader will come in to stabilize things.

Losing a pitcher as good as Cole for a significant chunk of time is never ideal, but it helps to have depth to absorb such a loss. There were questions about whether the Yankees had that kind of depth. Thus far, their rotation us proved up for the task, and the Yankees are in a tight battle for first place in no small part because of it.