VOTE: Which current starter do you trust the most?

07/05/2024 00:14

With Gerrit Cole out, who has most earned your faith in the interim?

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across Major League Baseball. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in New York Yankees fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

When the Yankees learned that ace Gerrit Cole would be out with an elbow injury for at least the first couple months of 2024, despair reigned across the fanbase. The 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner was so clearly the most valuable pitcher in the sport to his own team, and they wouldn't have even sniffed .500 without him last year. Now that they had Juan Soto and were preparing for a rebound season, how could they get by without Cole, even in the best-case short-term?

Well, it's not like the current rotation is replicating the famous 2003 Sports Illustratedcover with Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, and company, but they're holding the fort in any case. The rotation's collective 3.46 ERA currently ranks eighth among the 30 MLB teams, none of the five have an ERA+ below 100, and they're generally middle-of-the-pack at worst by other metrics. All that has helped New York to a 23-13 start, and honestly, more of the losses can be pinned on the inconsistent offense than the men on the mound at the start of games.

Our SB Nation Reacts survey question this week comes from curiosity. Now that we're over a month into the season and six weeks in on Thursday, who is your current most trusted Yankees starter? It feels like there's at least a modest case to be made for each of the current five starters, with each of Carlos Rodón, Marcus Stroman, Nestor Cortes, Luis Gil, and Clarke Schmidt enjoying their days in the sun at one point or another despite the occasional clunker. But who would your pick be?

Vote in the poll and let us know! We'll check out the results later this week.