James Paxton’s back surgery leaves a hole in the Yankees’ rotation, and while the team obviously won’t make any decisions on how to address the vacancy just yet, manager Aaron Boone spoke highly of left-hander Jordan Montgomery when discussing the team’s starting pitching depth (link via George A. King III and Dan Martin of the New York Post). “I think he has proven himself at this level,” Boone said of Montgomery, who posted a 3.88 ERA in 155 1/3 innings back in 2017 before undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2018. “For him to get back last year was big, just for his frame of mind. The fact he was able to make it back and get some work done, get into some games, I think was big for him and his mindset moving forward.” All signs point to a spring competition to round out the rotation behind Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Yankees bring in a veteran on a minor league deal, although between Montgomery, Luis Cessa and Jonathan Loaisiga, the Yankees do have three options who’ve at least made some big league starts.
More from the AL East…
- Orioles righty Alex Cobb is hoping for a healthier 2020 season and has already been throwing off a mound at Orioles minicamp, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. The 32-year-old Cobb, who signed a surprising four-year, $57MM deal late in the 2017-18 offseason, has been limited to 164 2/3 innings in Baltimore and hasn’t pitched effectively at all when healthy. A back injury cost him nearly all of the 2019 season — Cobb pitched in just three games last year — and he’s still owed $29MM under that four-year pact. A healthy Cobb would be a boon for a perilously thin rotation mix in Baltimore. Beyond him, the Orioles will lean on lefty John Means, journeyman Asher Wojociechowski and perhaps non-roster invitee Wade Leblanc. Baltimore’s only rotation additions this winter have been Leblanc, Rule 5 pick Brandon Bailey and former Twins prospect Kohl Stewart.
- The Blue Jays announced yesterday that director of player development Gil Kim will join the Major League coaching staff for the upcoming season. He’ll retain that title as he continues to work with the Jays’ up-and-coming wave of talent in the Major League clubhouse. “We identified an opportunity on the Major League coaching staff that would maximize Gil’s expertise in player development as an obvious asset,” general manager Ross Atkins explained in a release announcing the unorthodox move. “…As the season progresses, Gil’s role as a coach will continue to develop. His previous work to streamline our player development programs, philosophies and systems gives us tremendous confidence that incorporating his leadership and skillset into our Major League coaching staff will be an exciting addition.”
Prediction: Orioles make a deal with Marlins to acquire Jarlin Garcia (DFA) AND look at him as potential starter this season.
Right in our wheelhouse baby. Though there are more rotation candidates coming to ST than this article states. Not saying they’re good, they’re just…. there.
I am optimistic about what Elias has planned for them moving forward. Ever since they dumped the realistic logo, the curse has been lifted and they can get back to business
Looks like the Yankees are picking up where they left off injury-wise.
Archer to Yanks
No thanks.
Well, technically, this is a cyst, so… not really an injury.
lol how is a cyst not an injury? it might not be a sports related injury but it is/was causing harm to his body
The Yankees will be fine. They have Paxton and German coming back before the All Star break, maybe even in June, and they start out with Cole-Severino-Tanaka-Happ-Montgomery. What MLB team wouldn’t kill for that depth?
Yup. I can live with that. Still have Loasiga on the back burner as well.
They have some nice in house depth options to overcome the Paxton injury…. However, a classy team would move on from German.
What are you insinuating Buchner? Personally I agree but they’re not alone in that regard (see a certain closer in Houston).
They’d move on from him and another team would pick him up within the week
Not all organizations are governed by the same moral compass… As the old saying goes: One teams’ trash is another teams’ treasure… In regards to Osuna, one team gave up the youngest player to ever record 100 (now 150) saves, for a (at the time) struggling Ken Giles and a couple of middling minor league pitchers…. And I’m sure sure the Jays organization could care less.
@Buhnersideburns
Last I heard this was America and people pay their penitence and get to move on with their lives.
@southbeach…
This ain’t America, This is the internet….and though I agree that people get to pay their penitence and move on with their life, penitence isn’t achieved through an 80 game suspension, or jail term, or what have you. Penitence is achieved through a lifetime of thought and action, that prove you’ve learned from your mistakes. Forgive, yes. Forget, prove to me that you’re changed and I’ll think about it….. The fact that so many people are more up in arms, full of vitriol, and unwilling to forgive the Astro’s abusing a trash can, than they are when a pro athlete abuses their significant other is a sad state of affairs.
Buhner… It’s called cheating, and just because others do it and were not caught, as yet, doesn’t make it right. Osuna has simply shrugged his shoulders and moved on , but has he learned anything?
Buhnersideburns Why? That would just be giving him to another team. The reality of sports is if a player has talent and their actions don’t get them banned from the league their gonna get away with it. A key part of the Chiefs SB win was a player that abused his son and got away with it, WR Tyreek Hill.
Sign Collin McHugh as a long-man/spot starter and I’d feel more comfortable with the first couple months of the season. I’m really surprised he hasn’t been signed yet
Teams are scared off about his elbow discomfort probably. He’d be a solid signing anywhere, but the two stints last season for the same thing has to be a big part of why he’s still unemployed right now.
The Evil Empire will have NP with that pitching, excellent team in all aspects.
Second time you’ve called them an empire with no championship appearances in the last decade lol and McHugh is so intriguing because of his breaking ball but health has been a serious issue for him too. Especially when it causes his breaking ball to hang (think late-season Ottavino).
yanks should bring in Bartolo on a minor league contract
Good idea…6 years ago.
Montgomery is the perfect 4/5 starter. Yanks pitching will be fine, barring any other injuries. Cessa and Loaisiga are both relievers.
King, Schmidt and Garcia still need more time in the upper minor leagues. I see them more as 2021 rotation candidates, especially if Tanaka and/or Paxton leave as free agents.
Yankees need to sign Clay Bucholz asap
Yankees need a new conditioning coach! By the way Giancarlo Stanton called. He is finally ok to play in game 7
@TrumpCard
They replaced last year’s conditioning coach. But you know that conditioning has nothing to with a cyst right?
Cobbs signing is one of the worst ever.
*Chris Davis and Ubaldo Jimenez have entered the chat*
Chris Davis is the daddy of them all lol.
Sell FC Liverpool. Use the money to pay Mookie.
The Yankees will be fine. The only other real contender in the AL East is Tampa. They should have a very good team this year.
Did the Yankees say that they’re abandoning the opener idea? Because it worked very well for them last year. They should do it at least once every turn. Maybe even twice. Just start Cole, Sevy and Tanaka.
You’d burn the bullpen within a month
Using an opener means one extra inning from a short reliever. At most. The guy coming into the 2nd inning can pitch into the sixth, just like he would have if he started the game.
2-3 extra innings a week isn’t going to burn a 13-14 man bullpen. (let’s not forget that there’s an extra roster spot this year).
Wouldn’t be shocked to see them use it for some of Montgomery’s starts as he works his way back from Tommy John, but they’ll want to save Green for higher leverage spots so I don’t expect to see and opener too much.
Ross Atkins…the man who uses so many words but says absolutely nothing.
Asher Wojciechowski is essentially a lock to be in our rotation. Certainly more so than Wade Leblanc
You can expect his name to be written in to the rotation, but you can also expect his name to be misspelled a hundred different ways. (including by Mr. Adams here) Would be smart of the Orioles to produce labels with his name that people can stick onto sheets where his name is to go. Then again, maybe it will help as a distraction from the product on the field.
FWIW my phone autocorrected my spelling of Woj’s name to the same thing Steve typed. I actually had to go back and manually fix it. But I was just putting it out there that he’s essentially a lock for the rotation. Elias said that it’s going to be Means, Cobb, Wojo and then a competition for the 2 others.
It looks like Steve has changed the post up. (Unless I’m imagining things) it now reads like Woj is a member of the rotation.
It was thought Cole was a luxury, we now know it was a necessity. One absolute stud in the rotation answers a lot of questions. You don’t need that stud, but it sure helps.
Who thought Cole was a luxury?
A true number one starter has been the biggest need for awhile and Tanaka, Paxton and Happ are free agents next winter.
A true number one would be a luxury, is it not?
Are you saying that he is and isnt a necessity at the same time?
“we now know it was a necessity”
“You dont need that stud”
Yankees should be fine. Happ and Monty should anchor the back of the staff with Paxton out and they still have Loasiga and Cessa ready to make spot starts if need be. They also could potentially move someone up from the minors, like Mike King, to fill in. I was glad they kept Happ and it looks like doing so will help them even more now. Let Paxton take his time and get to 100% before they bring him back.
The second half is the most important.
Clemens?
Ross Atkins: were going to add another role to our major leagues process because we can’t make good trades so we need more coaches in the dugout.
So what trade was a fail?
Josh Donaldson end list
Maybe wait and see what Merryweather does in a full season, remember Donaldson has only had one good season since the trade! and probably goes down with dead arm during ST’ing and plays a total of 32 innings in the field for the 2020 season (he has his money now), WIN to the BLUE JAYS!
When Vlad totally dominates this season you will be saying Donaldson? who dat?
Are you seriously justifying the Donaldson deal? Please don’t. Merryweather is pushing 30 and has done nothing in the minors, let alone may never make it to the majors. There is no wait and see policy. The deal was awful.
But…..if ownership stopped Atkins from dealing Donaldson to St Louis a few off-seasons ago, then they should be held responsible.
Not trading Smoak in 2017 or 2018 was a fail. Not trading Giles this off-season will be a fail. Not trading Pillar in 2017 was a fail. Not trading Tepera in 2017 was a fail. JA Happ trade is looking like a fail. Trading for Fisher with a crowded outfield was a fail. I’ll consider the Galvis release a fail also. Could add Daniel Hudson too.
But there have been some good ones. Osuna, Liriano, Hutchison, Oh, Revere (even though Feldman was awful), I’ll put Pearce in the good one category for now, both Aledmys Diaz trades were good. David Phelps might also turn out nice.
The huge trade market for Smoak? And Pillar? And Tepera? And Happ?
Pattern of moves meant to cut payroll says the Sanchez trade was more about saving a couple months of pay than anything.
How are these fails?
Release Morales and Martin were fails too?
Got Hudson for nothing and turned him into a wild card. How is that a fail?
Weren’t going anywhere with Galvis, saved more money. Pattern holds. Still a stretch to call them fails.
Giles had injury questions pop up right before deadline, another stretch.
Donaldson was hurt and seemed to be pouting over some treatment from Gibbons and possibly some treatment regarding a Jackie Redmond situation. I’d still give that a fail because the year before was the window to trade and they tried to milk some extra attendance out of an obvious non-competitive team. And can’t see Merriweather surviving spring on the 40man.
Stroman trade was the big one and impossible to grade so far. He didn’t exactly have a huge market either. One arm gained in stock, the other fell and Stroman is still an enigma.
Look at the interest in players like Smoak, Pillar, Tepera, Sanchez once they’re freely available before being critical of not trading them for value.
Release Urshela is one you can have for the fail pile. Kind of move that happens though, to be critical is kind of unfair. To finally get a shot in a strong lineup and a hitter’s ballpark is a perfect storm scenario that Gio really took advantage of.
Still a chance to get value for Giles. Might find another Hudson or Sogard from the wild cards this year. Things are moving forward, not fast enough for most of our liking, but there are a lot of franchises moving backwards and/or going nowhere fast that make me thankful to cheer for the Jays.
Too soon to say things are moving forward if we are using your “logic”. You must’ve said the same thing in 2005 and 2009 and 2011. Let’s wait and see like the Stroman trade and then re-assess in a year or two.
I could explain everything to you but I see that will fall on deaf ears. The fact that you’d consider Urshela a fail proves it. Urshela wasn’t a fail because there was no possible way anyone could have predicted his 2019 season. Not a single person.
Be thankful. However I encourage you to be cautiously optimistic. We have seen this all before.
Ursh is still much closer to a fail than any of the ones you suggested oh wise one. Please enlighten me. Dumb it down though so I can understand.
Yankee’s could sign DFA’d Sal Ramano RHP Red’s. He was just dfa’d on Wednesday so maybe Cincinnati could offer him to NY for a player. Just a thought, Ramano is from CT and he fits the bill for long man, fill-in type pitcher.
Texas would likely send Guzman, Burke Trevino and Taveras to Balt for Hays, and Mancini.
The Orioles would want more for Mancini, and the front office thinks Hays will be an important building block for their future.
Why do people think the O’s would even consider offers for Hays? He is exactly the type of player they are trying to get right now.
But it’s 4 guys for 2, what a steal!
From a non-Orioles or Rangers fan perspective, that trade but Chris Davis instead of Hays.
The yanks dont need anymore pitchers
They already had too many starters
Now they can pitch montgomery and logasigna
All is fine
The yanks knew this might happen and held on to Happ even though clueless reporters kept creating rumors of trades that were never going to happen
1. The axiom – you can never have too much starting pitching – holds true here
2. The reporters aren’t clueless… Cashman has said he kept Happ because offers were underwhelming and also knew of Paxton’s potential surgery
3. You could have learned points 1 & 2 with a simple google search, you are the one that comes off as clueless
Are you related to Bozo the clown by any chance?
Oh the irony
I’d prefer the yanks pass on signing any vet starters. One of the biggest advantages of signing Cole in my mind is it makes me more comfortable using the 5th slot to develop young pitchers.
This is especially important in 2020 because PAX and Tanaka will be free agents and because of the depth of viable starters that need to prove themselves.
Cole, Sevy and Tanaka are a rock solid top 3 who with PAX and German are arguably the best rotation in the game. Pax and German can’t give you full seasons so their absence early lines the rotation up perfectly for the post season.
All you need to fill are 2 spots for 2-3 months.
Happ and Montgomery are probably the guys to beat but Loaisiga, Garcia, King wouldn’t scare me at all. Nor would tandem starters.
If you include Cessa in the mix that’s 6 guys to choose from for the last two spots. I’d still be fine trading Happ now though he might get more in trade at the deadline anyway.
I’ve liked what Montgomery has shown in his brief career. I hope he;s 100 % healthy and can pick-up from where he left off back in 2017. Sometimes the most successful Yankee prospects end up being the least talked about. (Cano, Cabrera, Andujar, Gardner, Mo, Pettite, Posada, German, etc).
@southbeachbully
Do us all a favor and get on Nancy Pelosi bandwagon. Everything u write is like being Helen Keller at a Metalicca concert.
TrumpCard: Your statement doesn’t make a lot of sense as a response to anything Southbeachbully posted. Nonetheless, Metallica is a good band.