Sal Grades The Yanks (Starting Pitching)

By Sal Maiorana

November 2024

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Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, shares some of his thoughts on the Yankees.

For Sal's complete analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

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2024 Rotation Grades: Mostly Solid and Reliable All Season

It was a unique year for the rotation because while there were key injuries to Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt, the Yankees largely relied on only six starters to get through the season. Overall, it was a pretty good performance and it got them to a World Series, but there’s certainly room for improvement in 2025. Lets get to it.

Gerrit Cole didn’t make his first start until June 19 due to an elbow issue, while Clarke Schmidt - after a terrific beginning - missed about three months with an oblique injury. And still, because of the durability of Carlos Rodon, Nestor Cortes, Luis Gil and Marcus Stroman, manager Aaron Boone avoided having to dig deep into the rotational depth chart to negotiate the season.

Outside of the top six, the Yankees used only two other starting pitchers - rookie Will Warren made five awful starts which raised a big red flag about his future, and Cody Poteet made four pretty good ones. It is highly unusual in the 21st century for a team to get starts from only eight pitchers, so that was certainly a positive in 2024.

The rotation produced a cumulative ERA of 3.85 which ranked 11th in MLB and batters hit just .238 which was seventh-best, but because Yankees starters walked 307 men (fifth-most in MLB), that led to a run of the mill 1.250 WHIP (walks, hits per nine innings) which tied for 15th, and an even worse strikeout-to-walk-ratio of 2.82 which was 19th.

Here’s how I graded the leading six:

Gerrit Cole: B+

• W-L: 8-5

• ERA: 3.41

• GS: 17

• IP: 95.0

• WHIP: 1.126

• BB/9: 2.7

• K/9: 9.4

Given all the breathless concern back in March when Cole flew out to Los Angeles to get a second opinion on his ailing elbow, his half season turned out pretty well. There was legitimate worry about him having to undergo Tommy John surgery which would have been devastating, but the news was good, and the Yankees survived just fine with him missing the first three months.

When he returned, it took a little time for him to settle in as his first four starts, none of which lasted beyond five innings, were ugly, a 6.75 ERA. He had two very good ones after that against the Orioles and Rays, but then got shelled by the Mets for six earned runs in 5.2 innings and he was sitting on a 5.40 ERA.

But thereafter, he started to look like the ace he is. In his last 10 starts, six were quality (meaning at least six innings with three or fewer earned runs) and he pitched to a 2.25 ERA as batters hit just .182 off him with a mere two homers.

And then in the postseason, the Yankees won his three starts combined against the Guardians and Royals, the clinching Game 4 against Kansas City a brilliant seven-inning performance, but while he was outstanding in his two World Series starts, they lost both. His postseason ERA was 2.17 and in the World Series it was 0.71. Of course, in Game 5, his boneheaded mental error when he didn’t cover first base in the tragic fifth inning led to five unearned runs which didn’t hurt his pitching line, but ultimately cost the Yankees the game.

Carlos Rodon: B-

• W-L: 16-9

• ERA: 3.96

• GS: 32

• IP: 175.0

• WHIP: 1.223

• BB/9: 2.9

• K/9: 10.0

Rodon was markedly better than his disastrous 2023 season when, like Cole in 2024, he missed the first half with an injury, and unlike Cole, returned and was an absolute train wreck.

This year, Rodon took the ball for every start, a career-high 32 for him, and he pitched at least six innings in 16 with every one of those a quality start. That’s pretty damn good, and in those 16 games, the Yankees lost only two. He had one horrible stretch in June where he gave up 20 earned runs in three starts, and that was largely why his ERA wasn’t great.

His 10.03 strikeouts per nine innings ranked 11th in MLB and his 3.42 strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.42 was 28th. His primary bugaboo was home runs as he gave up 31 which tied for second-most.

In the postseason, he wasn’t that good. He made four starts and while the Yankees went 2-2, his ERA was 5.60 and opponents hit .284 with an .820 OPS against him. In his lone World Series start, he did not survive the fourth inning and put the Yankees in a 4-1 hole from which they never recovered.

All in all, it was a successful season for Rodon, but in terms of his contract, no, he is now one-third of the way through that six-year, $162 million investment and he has not performed up to it.

Luis Gil: A-

• W-L: 15-7

• ERA: 3.50

• GS: 29

• IP: 151.2

• WHIP: 1.193

• BB/9: 4.6

• K/9: 10.9

Early in the season when Cole was out, it was Gil who saved the day - well, at least every fifth day - for the Yankees. He was slated to start in Triple-A coming back from his Tommy John surgery, but they needed him to fill out the rotation and he was shockingly brilliant. He had a few shaky outings in April and came out of the month with a 4.01 ERA, but then in May, he earned MLB pitcher of the month by making six starts, winning them all and going at least six innings, and allowing an ERA of 0.70, a batting average against of .109, and an OPS of .363.

There was talk of Cy Young and a start in the All-Star Game, but that cooled off in a hurry. Over his final 18 starts he had a 4.58 ERA and the Yankees went just 10-8 as his biggest issue became walks. In those 18 games, across 88.1 innings, he walked 46 and struck out only 45, and for the season his 4.6 walks per nine ranked 165th out of 170 starters who threw at least 50 innings.

In the playoffs, the Yankees won his start against the Guardians and their only World Series win was his Game 4 start, but he wasn’t much of a factor in either, lasting four innings in each with a 6.75 ERA.

Still, for a guy who entered the season having pitched in seven MLB games, this was quite a season, and the best news is that Gil came out healthy, so if he can build on 2024, he figures to be a key figure in the rotation for years to come.

Nestor Cortes: B-

• W-L: 9-10

• ERA: 3.77

• GS: 30

• IP: 174.1

• WHIP: 1.153

• BB/9: 2.0

• K/9: 8.4

Cortes finished two-thirds of an inning behind Rodon for the team lead in innings pitched, and he had a slightly better ERA because he allowed seven fewer dingers (24). Among the starters his 1.153 WHIP was second best, and he also had 14 quality starts and in seven of those, he did not allow an earned run.

As has been his situation for a few years, when Cortes has it, he really has it. And when he doesn’t, he can look like a batting practice pitcher which showed in his 8.4 hits per nine innings allowed. However, he only walked two men per nine, and that led to a team-best 4.15 strikeout to walk ratio.

Nasty Nestor is a good pitcher, plain and simple. He’s all you need in a fourth or fifth spot because he can eat innings and can negotiate his way through lineups because he offers up so many different looks in relation to arm angles. Plus, it’s always good to be a lefty in Yankee Stadium.

In the postseason, he wasn’t needed in the rotation, and of course, Boone made one of the worst decisions ever in Game 1 of the World Series when he chose Cortes to pitch the 10th after Jake Cousins got into trouble, even though Cortes had not been on a mound since Sept. 18. After he got Shohei Ohtani, and intentionally walked Mookie Betts, he gave up Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam which set the tone for the rest of the series.

Clarke Schmidt: B

• W-L: 5-5

• ERA: 2.85

• GS: 16

• IP: 85.1

• WHIP: 1.184

• BB/9: 3.2

• K/9: 9.8

Like Gil, Schmidt got off to a great start and was on the way to his best season as a Yankee before getting chopped down by an oblique injury that cost him more than three months. The 2017 first-round draft pick had given the Yankees 32 starts in 2023 and it wasn’t great, a 4.64 ERA and 1.352 WHIP, but it was a step in the right direction after he’d been stumbling around trying to find himself since debuting in 2020.

It finally looked like he was going to pay dividends at the start of 2024 as he made 11 starts through May 26 and had a 2.52 ERA and batters hit just .224 with a .660 OPS against him. Then he got hurt and his absence was crucial because without him, that’s when the Yankees began to hit the skids. They were 37-18 on the day of his May 26 loss to San Diego, and when he returned against the Cubs on Sept. 7 and teamed with Cortes for a four-hit shutout, the Yankees had played only three games above .500 in that stretch.

Once he was back, he started five times and the Yankees won three of the games, and then in the postseason he made three pretty blah starts, the Yankees lost two of them including a 2.2-inning Game 3 clunker against the Dodgers, and his ERA was 5.25 in just 12 innings of work.

Marcus Stroman: C-

• W-L: 10-9

• ERA: 4.31

• GS: 29

• IP: 154.2

• WHIP: 1.468

• BB/9: 3.5

• K/9: 6.6

I really thought Stroman would be a good fit for the Yankees when they signed him, a guy who could slot in at the bottom of the rotation and be a reliable option and that’s exactly what he was over the first two months as he headed into June with a 5-2 record and a 2.60 ERA.

And then it came apart and he pitched himself right out of a postseason opportunity as he never saw the mound in October. In his last 17 starts the Yankees went 9-8 and he gave up an astonishing 112 hits in 85.1 innings while pitching to a 5.70 ERA. Opponents hit .319 off him with an .853 OPS in those games.

For the season, it was good that Stroman made 29 starts and ate 154.1 innings, but it would have been nice if he’d been better. Even with the good fortune of an average support of 5.8 runs per start which tied for sixth-highest in MLB (Cortes received only 3.9 runs which was 98th) , Stroman did not take advantage because he couldn’t miss bats. His 6.6 strikeouts per nine ranked 156th out of 170 starters who threw at least 50 innings. And of the 71 starters with at least 150 innings, his 9.7 hits per nine innings was fifth-highest.