García, 26 in May, will be a reclamation project for the Brewers as he is a former top prospect who hasn’t lived up to the hype yet. To this point in his career, he has thrown 71 2/3 innings in the majors, allowing 5.02 earned runs per nine. His 20.4% strikeout rate, 10.3% walk rate and 34.1% ground ball are all a bit worse than average. The White Sox passed him through waivers unclaimed in May, which allowed him to elect free agency earlier this month.

The recent minor league results haven’t been nice either. He has thrown 260 2/3 innings on the farm over the past four years with a 6.35 ERA. His 24.4% strikeout rate in that stretch hasn’t been bad but his 13.6% walk rate is quite rough. That time frame includes 51 Triple-A innings in 2024 with a 6.18 ERA. He did strike out 27.4% of hitters at that level this year but also walked 11.9%.

The Brewers will be tasked with getting the proverbial train back on the tracks. From 2016 to 2019, as García was a prospect with the Yankees, he threw 293 2/3 minor league innings while climbing the ladder towards the majors. In that time, he had a 3.37 ERA, 34.5% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate. Baseball America considered him one of the top 100 prospects in the league in both 2020 and 2021, before his poor results at the major league level lowered his stock. He burned his final option year in 2023 and went to the White Sox via waivers towards the end of that season.

Milwaukee has had some good results lately in terms of helping wayward pitchers. Tobias Myers went into 2024 as a faded prospect with no major league experience but went on to toss 138 innings this past year with an ERA of 3.00. Colin Rea just had a couple of solid seasons with the Crew after spending a few years abroad. Frankie Montas had a 19% strikeout rate with the Reds before being traded to the Brewers and then went on to punch out 28.7% of opponents after the deal.

Garcia has undoubtedly struggled in recent years but he is still fairly young and was a hyped-up prospect a few years back. If the Brewers can find a way to get him right, he is out of options but has less than a year of service time, meaning he can be cheaply retained well into the future.

Once ranked among the game’s very best pitching prospects, the now-24-year-old Garcia (25 later this month) has seen his stock diminish amid shaky upper minors performances and some injuries. Garcia began to encounter significant command issues back in 2022, when he walked nearly 16% of his opponents in Triple-A. His command has yet to rebound, as evidenced by a career 14.3% walk rate in parts of four Triple-A seasons and a glaring 17% walk rate in 29 big league frames over the past two seasons.

The Yankees designated Garcia for assignment following the trade deadline last season, The rebuilding White Sox claimed the once-touted righty off waivers after the fact, but he’s struggled in his new environs as well. Garcia pitched 14 innings out of the Chicago bullpen this season and allowed 16 runs (11 earned) on 16 hits and 11 walks against 15 strikeouts. He also tossed four wild pitches along the way. Now that he’s passed through waivers, Garcia can head to Triple-A and attempt to get his command back on track.

The news leaves Keller poised to make his White Sox debut in the coming days as he likely steps into the rotation in Cannon’s stead. The 28-year-old signed a minor league deal with Chicago in early March after lingering on the free agent market throughout the offseason following a difficult 2023 campaign. Keller was limited to just 45 1/3 innings of 4.57 ERA baseball last year due to shoulder surgery and a thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosis, which MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand noted last month necessitated its own surgery back in October.

Surgery to correct TOS has rarely seen players return to the majors and enjoy success, with Stephen Strasburg and Chris Archer among the arms who have seen their careers impacted by the procedure in recent years. One example of a player who has returned effectively is Arizona right-hander Merrill Kelly, who stands as a prime example of the fact that not all types of TOS have the same long-term outlook. It’s not clear which type of TOS Keller went under the knife due to, though his decent 4.50 ERA in 16 innings of work at the Triple-A level across three starts this season gives reason for optimism that he could return to form as a viable back-of-the-rotation option in the majors.

Making room for Keller on the 40-man roster is Garcia, who will celebrate his 25th birthday next month. The right-hander was once a top prospect in the Yankees’ farm system and made his big league debut at just 21 years old during the shortened 2020 season, which saw him post a 4.98 ERA and 4.15 FIP across six starts in New York. Unfortunately, Garcia then struggled badly in the minor leagues over the next two seasons, with ERAs north of 6.80 in both campaigns. Garcia’s time with the Yankees came to a close in 2023, when he was designated for assignment after struggling through two relief appearances in the majors.

The White Sox took a chance on Garcia and claimed him off waivers from New York before installing him in the club’s bullpen. While he posted a strong 2.04 ERA in six appearances with the club down the stretch last year, Garcia walked more batters than he struck out and posted an ugly 6.04 FIP during that same timeframe. While Chicago retained Garcia on its roster through the offseason, the results began to match the peripherals in 2024 as the right-hander surrendered 16 runs (11 earned) in just 14 innings while walking 16.2% of batters faced.

Those major struggles were evidently enough for the White Sox to pull the plug on Garcia, who they’ll now have one week to either work out a trade for or attempt to pass through waivers. If they’re successful in the latter, they’ll have the opportunity to outright the youngster to the minor leagues where he can serve as non-roster depth going forward.

Also departing the club’s active roster is Cannon, a 23-year-old rookie who has made three starts in the majors for the White Sox so far this year. That first taste of big league action hasn’t gone particularly well for the youngster, as he’s posted a brutal 7.24 ERA in 13 2/3 innings of work despite a solid 4.04 FIP. Cannon figures to return to the Triple-A rotation and wait for his next opportunity in the majors.

In the meantime, his roster spot will go to Berroa, who figures to replace Garcia in the club’s bullpen. The 24-year-old right-hander was acquired from the Mariners in the deal that sent Gregory Santos to Seattle back in February and has just 1 2/3 big league innings under his belt to this point in his career. He’s struggled mightily to this point at the Triple-A level this season, with an 8.74 ERA across 11 appearances. Nonetheless, he’ll look to contribute to the White Sox bullpen during the middle innings alongside the likes of Jordan Leasure and Dominic Leone.

1:27pm: The White Sox have claimed right-hander Deivi Garcia off waivers from the Yankees, reports Erik Boland of Newsday. The Yankees had designated the former top prospect for assignment earlier in the week. The teams have not yet announced the move (or, in Chicago’s case, a corresponding 40-man transaction).

Garcia, 24, was considered one of the sport’s top pitching prospects not long ago, ranking on most top-100 lists prior to both the 2020 and 2021 seasons. The right-hander blitzed through the lower minors after signing as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic, reaching the Double-A level as a 19-year-old back in 2018. He had success both in High-A and Double-A the following year before being hit hard in Triple-A, but struggling at the minors’ top level as a 20-year-old facing vastly older competition hardly stood as any kind of red flag.

The canceled 2020 minor league season could well have impacted Garcia more than many other prospects. With no minor league games in which to play, he was rushed to the big leagues as a 21-year-old, turning in a 4.98 ERA in six starts (34 1/3 innings). His 22.6% strikeout rate and 4.1% walk rate were both encouraging, but Garcia was tagged for six home runs in that debut effort and struggled to strand runners once he’d allowed them to reach.

As with his 2019 struggles as one of the youngest players at the Triple-A level, however, Garcia’s lackluster 2020 results weren’t considered particularly damning. Jumping to the big leagues as a 21-year-old with only 40 innings of Triple-A experience is hardly an easy task, and at insofar as his ability to miss bats and limit walks, he more than held his own. The next two years, however, told another story.

From 2021-22, Garcia logged only 8 1/3 big league innings. In 2021, that was at least partially due to a lack of opportunity. The ’21 Yankees received 29 or more starts from each of Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery and Jameson Taillon, with another 18 from Domingo German, 16 from Corey Kluber and 14 from Nestor Cortes. There weren’t many extra starts to go around, but Garcia’s performance didn’t necessarily merit much of a look anyway. He was torched for a 6.85 ERA in 90 2/3 innings at Triple-A that season, and his 2022 results weren’t any better; Garcia logged a combined 6.89 ERA in 64 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in ’22. He didn’t pitch in the Majors that season.

It’s been largely the same in 2023. A move to the bullpen in Triple-A hasn’t been much help, evidenced by a 5.67 ERA and sky-high 14.6% walk rate in 48 innings. Garcia allowed just one run in 5 2/3 big league frames earlier in the year, but he did so with more walks issued (four) than strikeouts (three). Command has emerged as a major problem for the right-hander, who’s doled out a free pass to 14.2% of his opponents en route to a 6.52 ERA in 214 career innings at Triple-A.

There were always some concerns about the manner in which Garcia would be able to handle a starter’s workload. Listed at 5’9″ and 165 pounds, he’s considerably slighter in frame than the overwhelming majority of big league starters. Garcia indeed has spent time on the injured list in each of the past three seasons, and his fastball velocity has fluctuated accordingly. He averaged 95.1 mph this year in a pair of relief outings — a notable bump from the 92.1 mph he averaged as a starter in the Majors from 2020-21.

Whether the White Sox plan to use Garcia as a starter or reliever isn’t clear at this point, but he’s spent the bulk of the ’23 season coming out of the Scranton bullpen. For a Chicago team that’s already waved the white flag on the 2023 season, there’s plenty of sense in scooping up a former top prospect and seeing if a change of scenery can do him any good. Garcia is in his final minor league option year, meaning he can be sent to Triple-A for the remainder of the current season without needing to go through waivers. However, he’ll be out of options next spring, so the Sox will need to either keep him on the Opening Day roster or designate him for assignment themselves — if he’s even able to stick on the 40-man roster that long.

The White Sox currently have baseball’s fourth-worst record, which gave them waiver priority over all but three teams. Each of the A’s, Royals and Rockies apparently passed on placing a claim on Garcia. The Rays were among the other teams to place a claim on Garcia today, tweets Boland, though Tampa Bay has the third-best record in MLB (and thus the third-lowest waiver priority).

García was once viewed as a potential mid-rotation arm. The 5’9″ righty appeared among Baseball America’s top 100 prospects going into both 2020 and ’21. He debuted with six starts during the shortened campaign, posting decent strikeout and walk numbers despite an ERA pushing 5.00. At the time, it seemed he was in line for a permanent rotation spot in the near future. At the very least, his high-octane stuff was expected to play out of the bullpen.

Things didn’t play out that way. García was tagged for a 6.85 ERA at Triple-A in 2021. He only made two MLB appearances that season. He followed up with a 6.89 ERA between Double-A and Triple-A the following season. The Yankees abandoned hopes of García as a starter this year, using him in relief for all but one of his 28 minor league appearances.

It hasn’t translated to markedly improved results. The 24-year-old owns a 5.67 ERA through 46 frames with the RailRiders. His 20.5% strikeout percentage is a few points below average and he’s walking almost 15% of batters faced. After three seasons of subpar production in the upper minors, the Yankees no longer feel they can keep giving him opportunities to figure things out.

Since the trade deadline has come and gone, New York will have to place García on waivers. It’s no sure thing he’ll be claimed at this point, though it wouldn’t be a surprise if another club takes a flier on his former prospect status. García still has a reasonably live arm, averaging 94.9 MPH on his heater during a pair of big league appearances this summer. There are clearly significant command issues he’ll need to iron out if he’s to emerge as even a solid middle reliever. García is in his last option season; if another team claims him, they could keep him in Triple-A for the rest of the year but would have to carry him on next year’s big league roster (if he holds a 40-man spot all offseason).

While García’s DFA marks a painful concession by the organization that he hasn’t developed as hoped, the loss of Rodón is clearly a bigger impact in the short term. Fortunately, it’s not expected to be a serious issue. Manager Aaron Boone told reporters it’s a low-grade strain that isn’t expected to keep him out for much longer than the minimum (relayed by Greg Joyce of the New York Post).

Rodón has had a frustrating first season in the Bronx. The two-time All-Star dealt with forearm and back issues that cost him the first half of the year. Since returning, he’s been ineffective through six starts. He owns a 7.33 ERA with a notably decreased 20.5% strikeout rate and lofty 14.8% walk percentage over 27 innings. His velocity remains at the same level as it was when he was dominating hitters with the White Sox and Giants the last two years. The injuries have clearly kept him from finding any kind of consistency to this point in his Yankee tenure though.

Loáisiga has missed over three months after surgery to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow. He’s been limited to three appearances on the season. When healthy, the 28-year-old righty is one of New York’s better relievers. He racks up huge grounder rates and has a 3.53 career ERA.

Rodón will take the mound tonight against the Cubs. It’s his long-awaited Yankee debut. The two-time All-Star signed a six-year, $162MM free agent contract over the winter. He was expected to pair with Gerrit Cole as co-aces atop the starting staff. That’s taken longer than anticipated, as Rodón battled a forearm strain in Spring Training and dealt with back discomfort over the past couple months.

The star southpaw has made three minor league rehab starts, tossing 10 2/3 frames of one-run ball. He threw 58 pitches in his final rehab outing last Saturday. The Yankees will surely be cautious with his workload tonight and coming out of the All-Star Break, but they’ll get their first glimpse of he and Cole as a one-two punch.

Cortes was expected to be a key part of the rotation himself. The southpaw has struggled to a 5.16 ERA over 11 appearances after consecutive sub-3.00 seasons in 2021-22. Cortes then landed on the injured list, retroactive to June 5, after straining his left rotator cuff.

The 60-day minimum backdates to his original IL placement. Cortes is now officially out into the first week of August. It appears he could be back around when first eligible. Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News noted earlier this week (on Twitter) that Cortes got through a 25-pitch bullpen session without issue and is expected to throw live batting practice on Sunday.

As for Bauers, he’ll be out at least through next weekend. The left-handed hitter has filled in reasonably well since being called upon in late April. Over 154 plate appearances, he’s hitting .224/.312/.470 with seven home runs.

Who does the club have on hand that could step up to fill in for Montas or any other injury? Let’s take a look at the options.

Domingo Germán

Germán, 30, is probably the most obvious and straightforward solution. He seemed to establish himself as part of the club’s future rotation in 2019 when he tossed 143 innings with a 4.03 ERA, 27.2% strikeout rate, 8.8% walk rate and 38.1% ground ball rate. But in September of that year, he was placed on administrative leave while the league investigated him for domestic violence. He ultimately received an 81-game suspension and flirted with retirement while serving it but ultimately returned.

In 2021, he was able to toss 98 1/3 innings over 18 starts and four relief appearances. He posted a 4.58 ERA while striking out 23.9% of opponents. Last year, shoulder problems sent him to the 60-day injured list in March and he wasn’t reinstated until July. He ultimately made 14 starts and one relief appearance, posting a 3.61 ERA in 72 1/3 innings. His strikeout rate dipped to just 19.5% and opponents hit just .262 on balls in play. That latter number is well below league average but not far off from his career mark of .272. It’s possible that he just has a knack for limiting damage but Statcast data doesn’t support that. He was in the 26th percentile last year in terms of hard hit rate and 25th in average exit velocity, though he was in the 57th for barrel rate. It’s possible that he would struggle to maintain an ERA under 4.00 but he avoids walks and would still be much better than the fifth/sixth starter on most teams.

Clarke Schmidt

Schmidt, 27 next month, was a first round pick of the Yanks in 2017. He pitched well as he moved up the minor league ladder and was considered one of the top 100 prospects in the league by Baseball America in 2020 and 2021. He’s had some brief time in the majors but his overall workload hasn’t been huge over the past couple of years. With the minors being canceled by the pandemic in 2020, he was limited to just 6 1/3 innings of official action in the majors. In 2021, an elbow strain kept him out of action for a while and he was only able to log another 6 1/3 in the bigs along with 38 minor league innings. Last year, he was frequently optioned and recalled, throwing 57 2/3 frames in the majors along with 33 in Triple-A, combining for 90 2/3 on the season.

When healthy enough to take the mound, he’s produced pretty solid results. His 70 1/3 innings at the MLB level have resulted in a 3.71 ERA, 22.5% strikeout rate, 10.7% walk rate and 44.6% ground ball rate. His minor league work has been even better, as he’s posted a 2.71 ERA over 71 innings in the past two years. He struck out out 31% of batters faced and walked 7.1% of them while getting ground balls on about half of balls in play. There are some things to like here but he still has an option whereas Germán doesn’t. Given that fact and his workload concerns, he might get nudged to Triple-A until a need arises.

Deivi García

García, 24 in May, flashed some potential in 2020 when he made six starts with a 4.98 ERA. That number might not jump out, but he was only 21 years old at the time, perhaps pointing to an enticing future with continued development. Unfortunately, that hasn’t come to fruition. In the two subsequent years, he’s only made a couple of big league starts while registering a 6.87 ERA in 154 2/3 minor league innings. He’s still young but he’s now out of options. Given his poor results in recent years, he could be given a long relief role in the bullpen or else designated for assignment.

Luis Gil

Gil, 25 in June, has a 3.78 ERA through his first seven MLB starts but he’s not going to be available for a while. He underwent Tommy John in May of last year and won’t be a realistic candidate until midseason at the earliest. Like García, he’s now out of options and will need to either crack the active roster or else be designated for assignment. He’ll be able to pitch in the minors as part of a rehab assignment once healthy, but it will be decision time once the 30-day rehab period is up.

Randy Vasquez

Vazquez, 24, has spent his entire career with the Yanks thus far, signing with them as an international free agent in 2018. He’s since moved his way up and spent all of last year in Double-A. He made 25 starts at that level, tossing 115 1/3 innings with a 3.90 ERA. He struck out 24.2% of batters faced while walking 8.3% and getting grounders at a 48.3% clip. He was added to the club’s roster in November to prevent him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He’s currently considered the club’s #9 prospect at Baseball America but has yet to pitch at the Triple-A level.

Matt Krook

Krook, 28, is a left-hander that was drafted by the Giants but went to the Rays in the Evan Longoria deal. The Yankees grabbed him in the minor league portion of the 2020 Rule 5 draft. He’s since posted some solid results in the upper minors, though the control hasn’t been pinpoint. He spent last year at Triple-A, making 22 starts and seven relief appearances with a 4.09 ERA over 138 2/3 innings. He walked 12.1% of batters faced but struck out 25.7% and got grounders at a 55.7% clip. That was enough for the Yanks to add him to the roster at season’s end to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency.

Jhony Brito

Brito, 25 next month, has spent his entire career in the Yankees’ organization, having been signed by them as an international amateur out of the Dominican Republic. He split last year between Double-A and Triple-A, tossing 112 2/3 innings over 23 starts and three relief appearances. He only struck out 20% of batters faced but kept his walks down to a 7.7% level and got grounders on about half the balls he allowed into play. Like Krook, he was added to the club’s 40-man at the end of the season to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency.

Yoendrys Gomez

Gomez, 23, was an international signee out of Venezuela, agreeing with the Yankees in 2016. He earned his way onto prospect lists over the next few years and got a spot on the 40-man in November of 2020 to protect him from Rule 5 selection. Unfortunately, injuries have limited him over the past couple of seasons. In 2021, he dealt with a shoulder issue and contracted COVID-19, ultimately only making nine starts on the year at Class-A. In 2022, he spent time at various levels and finished the year at Double-A, but was only able to log 47 innings on the year. The results were good, as he posted a 2.49 ERA while striking out 25.7% of batters faced, but it will be hard for him to carry a huge workload after pitching very little in recent years.

Clayton Beeter/Sean Boyle/Mitch Spence/Tanner Tully

None of this group are currently on the 40-man roster, meaning they will face longer odds of contributing this year, though they could always force the club into making room. Beeter is arguably the most exciting of the bunch. Selected 66th overall by the Dodgers in 2020, he was ranked that club’s #12 prospect by Baseball America going into 2022. That was after a 2021 season that saw him post a 3.44 ERA between High-A and Double-A while striking out 36.6% of batters faced. In 2022, his ERA jumped to 5.75 as he walked 14.3% of batters faced, but he was then flipped to the Yankees in the Joey Gallo trade. After the deal, he got his walks down to 10.6% and his ERA to 2.13. He struck out an incredible 37.1% of batters faced on the year between the two teams but only threw 77 innings.

External Addition

If the Yankees feel these depth options aren’t enough, they could always look outside the organization for help. The free agent market still features guys like Michael Wacha, Dylan Bundy and Zack Greinke. In terms of trades, it’s possible the Mariners might be willing to move Marco Gonzales or Chris Flexen. The Brewers are suddenly loaded in rotation options and could theoretically do without Adrian Houser. However, all of those paths come with a complication for the Yankees, who are reportedly leery about crossing the final tier of the competitive balance tax. Roster Resource currently pegs their CBT figure at $292.3MM, just a hair under the final line of $293MM. Making any external addition without making up that difference will be a challenge. Trading the contract of someone like Josh Donaldson or Aaron Hicks would give them some more breathing room but the Yanks haven’t been able to find a deal so far.

8:02AM: The Yankees have designated right-hander Luke Bard for assignment, as first indicated on the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Presumably, his 40-man spot will go to first baseman Ronald Guzman, who was in the clubhouse yesterday and is set to be selected to the big league roster to fill the spot of the injured Anthony Rizzo. However, the Yankees have yet to formally announce the move, so it remains to be seen whether there are additional transactions on the horizon.

Bard, 31, was a waiver claim out of the Rays organization a month ago but has appeared in just one game with the Yankees (during which he tossed a shutout inning). He’s spent the rest of his stint with the organization in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he’s yielded four earned runs on nine hits and four walks with eight punchouts in eight innings of work.

Overall, Bard carries a 1.80 ERA in 15 big league frames and a 4.78 mark in 32 Triple-A innings. The 2022 season as marked Bard’s first game action since 2020, as he missed the entire 2021 campaign while rehabbing from April hip surgery — an injury that ultimately ended a four-year stint in the Angels organization.

Bard has now appeared in parts of four minor league seasons and between the Halos, Rays and Yankees, recording a 4.44 ERA in 81 innings. This year’s 94.1 mph average on his fastball is right in line with previous seasons, as is his top-of-the-charts spin rate on the pitch; Bard led the Majors in four-seam spin in 2018-19 and is in the 99th percentile this season. That trait alone obviously isn’t going to lead to instant success, but it’s been appealing enough to keep Bard on 40-man rosters for the bulk of the past several years.

At this point in the season, the Yankees won’t have any choices with Bard other than to place him on outright waivers or release waivers. Either way, he’ll be made available to the 29 other clubs. He’s been outrighted once in the past, when he cleared waivers last October while still on the mend from that hip procedure. As such, even if he goes unclaimed on waivers, he’d have the ability to reject an outright assignment to Scranton in favor of free agency.

There could be some long-term opportunity for Garcia to stick in the rotation, given the injury to Corey Kluber. The 21-year-old hasn’t been all that sharp through four starts in Triple-A, however, walking more than 17% of enemy combatants. He has one big league start so far this season, a four-inning outing against the Orioles late in April.

Wilson, meanwhile, was attempting to work through a hamstring issue. Through 15 appearances, however, he was clearly being affected. His 6.08 ERA/6.79 FIP through 13 1/3 innings are far higher than we’ve come to expect from the veteran southpaw. His 19.7 percent strikeout rate would be his lowest such mark for his career.

Another Yankee southpaw is on the comeback trail. Zack Britton is beginning a rehab assignment in Double-A, the team notes. Britton has yet to appear this season. Britton has been a huge piece of the Yankees’ late-game calculus for the past two and a half seasons.

The latest on a few more pitchers around the game:

• Reds righty Sonny Gray, who has been dealing with a back problem for a couple of weeks, came out of a sim game unscathed Friday, per Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. After throwing two innings and 30 pitches, Gray said, “I felt good. It was definitely a step in the right direction.” Gray will start the season on the injured list, but he doesn’t expect to miss much time. That’s uplifting news for a Reds starting staff that lost the aforementioned Bauer during the offseason.
• Eduardo Rodríguez was recently set back by a dead arm but seemed to make some progress this morning. The Red Sox left-hander came out of a bullpen session feeling good about his chances of soon returning to game action, although a season-opening injured list stint remains a possibility (via Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com and Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe). Manager Alex Cora says the club will evaluate how Rodríguez feels tomorrow before making any decisions about his recovery timeline.
• The Yankees have optioned right-hander Deivi García to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, according to a team announcement. The move suggests Domingo Germán will enter the season as the No. 5 in the Yankees’ rotation behind Gerrit Cole, Corey Kluber, Jameson Taillon and Jordan Montgomery, though odds are that García will make his share of starts this season. The 21-year-old, a former top 100 prospect, made his debut last season with a 4.98 ERA/4.21 SIERA with a 22.6 percent strikeout rate against a stingy 4.1 percent walk rate in 34 1/3 innings.
• Athletics righty Mike Fiers will begin the season on the injured list, manager Bob Melvin announced to Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle and other reporters. Fiers has been dealing with left hip inflammation since midway through the month and hasn’t faced live hitters during his recovery. His injury could open the door for any of Daulton Jefferies, Cole Irvin or A.J. Puk to at least temporarily join the A’s rotation. Fiers tied for the A’s lead in starts (11) and finished second in innings (59) last season, but he struggled to a 4.58 ERA/5.41 SIERA and managed a personal-worst 14.4 percent K rate.

How those innings manifest might be the question for the Yankees. The mean of the three projections is 114-ish innings, which would be just under four innings per start over a full 30-game workload. That’s not likely to be the shape of Taillon’s 2021 production. We know that depth will be key in 2021 across the league, but thinking in this way about Taillon all but erases the possibility of a five-man rotation surviving the season.

While that’s an absolute best-case, rarely-achieved feat in the first place, it’s worth keeping in mind before getting frustrated when Deivi García, for example, doesn’t make an opening day roster, speculatively speaking. And while Clarke Schmidt’s injury doesn’t appear to be serious, it serves as a generous reminder that the injury bug can bite at any time.

As if Taillon didn’t cloud the Yankees’ projections enough on his own, the rest of the group doesn’t bring much certainty either – beyond Gerrit Cole, of course. The projection systems collectively tag presumptive No. 2 starter Corey Kluber with an expectation for about 137 innings in 2021, a forecast largely born from the fact that the soon-to-be 35-year-old managed just one inning in 2020 and 35 2/3 innings the year before. Still, Kluber was a workhorse before 2019, with five straight 200+ inning seasons with the Indians.

Jordan Montgomery slots into the No. 4 spot, and he logged just 51 2/3 innings over the past two seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery himself. Somewhat remarkably, the starter with the most innings after Cole the past two seasons is the guy who missed all of 2020 under the league’s domestic violence policy: Domingo Germán. Germán made 24 starts and amassed 143 innings with a 4.03 ERA/4.72 FIP, 38.1 percent groundball rate, 25.8 percent strikeout rate, and 6.6 percent walk rate in 2019. Those are above-average walk and strikeout numbers. Germán faces his own uphill climb, of course. Given comments made by his Yankee teammates this offseason, there’s more than a little doubt about how well he’ll be able to re-acclimate to the spotlight that comes with donning Yankee pinstripes.

García will obviously be a candidate to join the rotation, as could other 40-man roster arms like Schmidt, Michael King, Nick Nelson, Alexander Vizcaino, Luis Medina, and Luis Gil. Veterans Jhoulys Chacin and Asher Wojciechowski are also in camp as non-roster invitees. Jonathan Loaisiga, Albert Abreu and Luis Cessa are expected to pitch out the bullpen, but they’ve spent time starting games in the past. The Yankees also hope to receive a mid-season boost when Luis Severino returns from Tommy John. Severino threw just 12 innings the past two seasons, but he was an ace in the two years before that, averaging a 3.18 ERA/3.01 FIP, 5.5 fWAR in 192 innings per season in 2017 and 2018.

Of course, no matter the starting five, most teams are going to call upon more than just their opening day rotation to toe the rubber. The Yankees themselves used nine different starting pitchers in 2020 over just 60 games. They used 12 in 2019, 12 in 2018, and 11 in 2017. Those units finished eighth, fifth and fourth in the American League by measure of FIP, ninth, third and third by fWAR. Yankee starters ranked third in the AL by both FIP (4.19 FIP) and fWAR (5.3 fWAR) last season.

Volume isn’t everything, but for pitchers, inning totals do often point to success, or at the very least, health. Given the uncertainty of the Yankees new rotation, what are your expectations? Who of the starters after Cole stands the best chance of surviving the season?

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It’s a bold stroke for manager Aaron Boone. Garcia made just 6 starts during the regular season in his first taste of big league action. Garcia held his own, going 3-2 with a 4.98 ERA/4.15 FIP and 8.7 K/9 to 1.6 BB/9. His command was particularly impressive, never having limited free passes at such a stringent rate at any point in his minor league career when it’s typical for young players to struggle more with their command upon promotion to the bigs. Garcia’s 5’9″ stature and electric stuff has drawn comparisons to Pedro Martinez early in his career, and while that’s quite a lofty comparison at this stage, he certainly looks more and more like a player with cult potential in New York.

Over the small sample of major league innings we’ve seen thus far, Garcia averages a 91.9 mph four-seamer that serves as the bedrock offering in his arsenal, throwing it about 60% of the time, often up. The Dominican righty utilizes a 80.6 mph change-up away against lefties while mixing in a breaking ball about 12.5% of the time. Against right-handed batters, he goes to a slider/curveball combo more frequently, giving equal love to the slider and curve for a total usage rate of about 33%. He was the Yankees #1 prospect coming into the season.

It will be interesting to see how Boone chooses to manage Garcia. He could easily plan to pull the rookie after one or (likely at-most) two turns through the Rays lineup, though he’ll be helped by the fact that Rays hitters have not seen him in-game before. Boone has a number of long relievers he can call on to piggyback with Garcia if he so chooses. Luis Cessa, Jonathan Loaisiga, Jordan Montgomery, Nick Nelson, and Michael King all have experience starting in the minor leagues. Montgomery might be the most-likely go-to, both because of his relatively strong season (3.87 FIP across 10 starts, 44 innings), but also because the southpaw might see platoon advantages, depending on how long Garcia goes and how aggressive the Rays are with their substitutions. The Rays tend to be fairly aggressive with pinch-hitters, even early in games, so platoon advantage alone likely won’t dictate much of the Yankees’ thinking early in the contest.

Masahiro Tanaka, then, will get the start in game three. The veteran weathered a tough outing in game two against Cleveland in the Wild Card round. Tanaka survived just four innings, walking three, yielding 5 hits, and 6 earned runs. The Yankees, of course, ultimately rallied to win the game and seal the series. Tanaka threw 77 pitches, and given the 6 full days he’ll have off between starts, he should be more than ready for Wednesday’s game three.

• Outfielder Kevin Pillar hopes to remain with the Red Sox, but the soon-to-be free agent understands he’s a trade candidate as the Aug. 31 deadline approaches (via Alex Speier of the Boston Globe). Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom informed Pillar that he’ll listen to offers for the 31-year-old in the coming days. It would be a surprise if Pillar’s still a member of the Red Sox on Sept. 1, considering their status as non-contenders, Pillar’s waning team control, and the fact that he’d be more useful to a playoff-caliber club. Since signing a one-year, $4.25MM contract with the Red Sox last winter, Pillar has lined up at all three outfield positions and batted a playable .257/.316/.419 in 114 plate appearances.
• As a pending free agent, Rangers designated hitter/outfielder Shin-Soo Choo realizes he could pop up in trade talks with Monday looming, as Jeff Wilson of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram writes. “Every year, it’s been, ‘Trade Choo, trade Choo,’ but this year I have a very strong feeling,” Choo said. From the Rangers’ standpoint, though, finding a taker for Choo would likely be difficult. The 38-year-old, normally a quality offensive player, has slumped to a .216/.306/.365 line with three home runs in 85 plate appearances this season. That’s unappealing production at any price, let alone the prorated $21MM Choo is earning. Regardless, as someone who has procured 10-and-5 rights, Choo has the ability to veto any trade.
• More on the pitching-needy Yankees, who seem likely to promote right-handed prospects Clarke Schmidt and Deivi Garcia over the weekend for their major league debuts, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post suggests. Either Schmidt or Garcia could be trade bait for the club before Aug. 31, observes Davidoff; if not, they may be able to help the Yankees’ staff. The 24-year-old Schmidt and Garcia, 21, are regarded as a pair of the Yankees’ top farmhands, with MLB.com ranking the former second in their system and placing the latter at No. 3.

A stress reaction in King’s elbow limited him to just 48 innings in 2019, but he impressed the organization enough to make a brief MLB debut in September and to crack the Opening Day roster in ’20. The 25-year-old King, acquired in the trade that sent Caleb Smith and Garrett Cooper to the Marlins, posted a sub-2.00 ERA in 161 1/3 innings in his last full season back in 2018. He logged a 4.18 ERA with a 28-to-6 K/BB ratio in 23 2/3 frames in a very hitter-friendly Triple-A setting last year.

King isn’t as highly regarded a prospect as either Garcia or Schmidt, but he’s further along in his development and considered to be much more polished. Garcia did pitch 40 innings in Triple-A last year, but he’s also four years younger than King. He could very well still make his MLB debut at some point in 2020. Schmidt, too, has a chance at cracking the roster at some point, although the 24-year-old has only pitched 19 innings above the Class-A Advanced level. Both Schmidt and Garcia were ranked among the game’s 100 best prospects according to each of Baseball America, MLB.com and The Athletic prior to the season.

With Masahiro Tanaka working his way back from a concussion and Luis Severino out for the year due to Tommy John surgery, King could get a chance to start a game or two early in the season. However, Tanaka also tossed a 20-pitch bullpen session this afternoon (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch), and he could be back in the fold for the Yankees at month’s end.

Garcia and King may be the most intriguing names in this quartet. It wasn’t long ago that both pitchers were competing for season-opening roles in the Yankees’ banged up rotation. But if the coronavirus does delay Opening Day until June or later, injured left-hander James Paxton figures to begin the year in the Yankees’ starting staff. That would give them a complete five-man rotation with Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ and Jordan Montgomery complementing Gerrit Cole.

While Garcia and King aren’t ticketed for season-opening roles in New York, the pair could find themselves in the majors soon enough. The two undoubtedly count among the Yankees’ best farmhands, with Baseball America ranking the 20-year-old Garcia as their No. 3 prospect and placing King, 24, at No. 13.

Estrada, also 24, made his MLB debut in 2019 and batted .250/.294/.438 with three home runs in 69 plate appearances. He played both middle infield positions and both corner outfield spots during that brief stint.

Heller, whom the Yankees acquired from the Indians in the teams’ 2016 trade centering on Andrew Miller, has totaled just 25 1/3 major league innings thus far. He underwent Tommy John surgery in April 2018, thereby sidelining the 28-year-old for all of that season and for the majority of last year.