Yankees Reveal Order of Starting Rotation to Start Regular Season
TAMPA — With the demotion of Deivi García, it was clear which five starters would be in the Yankees' starting rotation.
Now, with just a few more days to go until Opening Day, we have the order in which those five hurlers will throw to start the year.
According to Yankees manager Aaron Boone, here's how New York's starting pitchers will open the season, barring any injuries or scheduling complications due to weather.
- Gerrit Cole vs. Blue Jays
- OFF DAY - - Corey Kluber vs. Blue Jays
- Domingo Germán vs. Blue Jays
- Jordan Montgomery vs. Orioles
- Gerrit Cole vs. Orioles
- Jameson Taillon vs. Orioles
Gerrit Cole twice before Jameson Taillon?
Before diving into this any further, here's Boone's full explanation on Sunday morning for this order (and the decision to push Taillon back a few days).
That's just the order I wanted to do it in frankly. With Jamo, it gives us an opportunity to slow play Jamo a little bit. We feel like he's in such a good spot physically, but with the off days that we have in April, we just want to be mindful of building these guys up properly. We feel like a sixth starter's gonna factor in at least once, maybe a couple times in the month of April. By doing it this way, we keep our guys as much as possible on that kind of five and six day, sometimes seven day, but kind of trying to also avoid guys going on the ninth or 10th day with different off days. So, this kind of lines that up the best while also putting a little bit of drag on Jamo to make sure we're building him up properly and safely and hopefully putting him in a spot to where we get to a point in the season where we're rolling through with our guys. A lot of conversation about it over the last several weeks, but this is how we'll roll it out to start.
Got all of that?
Cole pitching on Opening Day is no surprise. In order to keep him on his five-day routine to start the season, with the off day coming before the second game of the year, Cole needs to pitch in Game 5, the penultimate game of New York's first home stand.
Corey Kluber goes in Game 2. He'll start on Sunday in Clearwater against the Phillies in his final tune-up before the season begins.
Similar to Cole, that gives him six days before his first start of the season (again, due to that off day right after the regular season begins).
From there, Boone gives the ball to right-hander Domingo Germán and left-hander Jordan Montgomery. Both have been incredibly impressive this spring, allowing one run in 19 combined innings.
Germán won the final spot in the rotation over García. He's not necessarily the "third starter," as this order suggests, but will go in Game 3 to continue on his progression. Same goes for Montgomery who is scheduled to pitch a simulated game against his teammates at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday.
This spring began with Germán attempting to regain the trust of his teammates, coming back to the club after missing all of last season due to his 81-game suspension for violating the league's domestic violence policy.
Regardless of what has gone on off the field, as he continues to mature and grow, Germán has shown this spring that he's poised to bring his impressive performance in 2019 (leading the team with 18 wins) back to the mound in 2021.
"I think the lack of rust has been the most pleasantly surprising thing to me," Boone said on Germán. "I feel like since his first bullpen that we got the lay eyes on him in spring training on into live sessions on into the games, it's just been a guy that's been really, really focused, really polished, the stuff has been excellent, the command of all three pitches. Every time he's walked out there, he's been excellent. Just feel like he's in a really good spot entering the season and still got to build his pitch count a little bit but feel like he's throwing the ball as well as anyone."
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Lastly, on Taillon, Boone reiterated that New York doesn't want to rush him out of the gates. The right-hander didn't pitch a single inning last year while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
With a long season ahead, there's no reason to push the envelope this early.
"He's coming north with us," Boone said of Taillon. "He'll actually probably throw a sim game on the off day after Thursday."
MORE:
- Jay Bruce Is Eager to Take Advantage of Starting Opportunity With Yankees
- Yankees' Justin Wilson Starts Throwing Again; Will He Be Back in Time For Opening Day?
- When Luke Voit Is Expected to Return From Left Knee Surgery
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