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After a strong spring training for the New York Yankees, they head into an Opening Day matchup against division foe, the Baltimore Orioles. Masahiro Tanaka gets the ball to start the season for the Yankees while the Orioles will be throwing Andrew Cashner after presumed opening day starter Alex Cobb was ruled out due to a groin injury.
Heading into the spring, Tanaka was not the Yankees first choice for an opening day starter as well. That role fell to staff ace Luis Severino, who unfortunately suffered a shoulder injury early on in spring training.
Yankees Opening Day Lineup & Roster vs Orioles
Yankees Lineup
1. Brett Gardner CF
2. Aaron Judge RF
3. Giancarlo Stanton LF
4. Luke Voit DH
5. Miguel Andujar 3B
6. Gary Sanchez C
7. Greg Bird 1B
8. Gleyber Torres 2B
9. Troy Tulowitzki SS
SP – Masahiro Tanaka RHP
Bench: Austin Romine, DJ LeMahieu, Mike Tauchman
Bullpen: Zack Britton, Aroldis Chapman, Chad Green, Tommy Kahnle, Stephen Tarpley, Jonathan Holder, Luis Cessa
Yankees 2019 Pitching Staff Preview
While Severino is unable to go to start the year, he should assume his spot in the rotation after a few weeks. ESPN’s Coley Harvey Reported a projected timelie for Severino’s return:
The when is indeed important. Since he hadn’t yet appeared in a game (the early March start was slated to be Severino’s first of the spring), the Yankees were essentially able to revert the ace’s rehab calendar as if the start of his recovery were the start of his spring training. Expect his new spring training to last at least five weeks, going back to the day last week when Severino threw on flat ground for the first time.
Going off of this timeline, we can likely expect to see Severino back in pinstripes sometime around early May.
With the injury to Severino complicating plans to start the season, things get murkier considering veteran stopper CC Sabathia is coming off heart surgery this offseason and is suspended the first five games of the season. In the place of the two missing staples are young arms Domingo German and Jonathan Loaisiga.
German figures to start in place of Severino while he is out and although Loaisiga was optioned to AAA to start the year, Boone and the Yankees made it clear that he would be starting in some capacity in place of the missing Sabathia. While Luis Cessa did make the 25 man roster, he is not expected to start despite competing for the job and posting a stellar spring training.
As it stands, the Yankee’s starting rotation to open the season looks like:
1. Masahiro Tanaka
2. James Paxton
3. J.A. Happ
4. Domingo German
5. Jonathan Loaisiga
Sabathia shouldn’t miss more than one or two starts and will likely assume his spot at the back of the rotation. Despite his age, Sabathia offers a veteran presence on the staff and is adept at offering the Yankees a big-time quality start when they need it most.
The rotation is unquestionably weak without Severino and Sabathia in the mix but provides enough punch at the top to keep the Yankees afloat while they await the return of their ace. Severino was shaky to end the season last year but has shown to be one of the best pitchers in baseball when on his game and has gone months at a time while being borderline unhittable.
Severino’s presence alone takes the Yankees rotation from being a middle of the road group to a World Series contender. With a big four of Severino, Tanaka, Paxton, and Happ, the fully healthy Yankees are going to be trotting out a front-line starter nearly every night.
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