The New York Yankees are on a historic run of pitching.
And while the whole Yankees’ fanbase stresses about a potential injury to Aaron Judge, the Yanks’ pitching staff just keeps doing its thing.
Carlos Rodon was the latest to look sharp as part of the Yankees’ Wednesday afternoon game in Minnesota against the Twins. Rodon went 6.0 innings, allowing four hits and two runs while striking out five.
The Yankees didn’t give him any run support, but that happens. The best the New York arms can do is keep allowing limited runs, and it’ll work out more often than not.
And this season, they’re doing that in a way they haven’t since 1957.
Yankees Making Pitching History
This stat comes from Baseball Reference’s Katie Sharp:
“Yankees currently have 6 pitchers with 15-plus starts and an ERA below 4.00. Yankees haven’t had 6 pitchers with those stats in a season since 1957.”
For those keeping score at home, 1957 is 69 years ago.
So yeah, it’s been a while.
For one, teams don’t always have six pitchers make that many starts. And when they do, there’s often at least one dud in there.
Not for these Yankees, though.
Cam Schlittler, the young phenom, is leading the charge. He has a 1.95 ERA in 31 starts.
Will Warren has 28 starts, second on the team, and has a 3.89 ERA.
Ryan Weathers has put up a 3.60 ERA in 25 starts.
For Gerrit Cole, it’s been a 3.67 ERA in 20 starts.
Then there’s Max Fried, a 2.63 ERA in 19 starts.
Rodon just made his 15th start, and he now has a 2.95 ERA.
Schlittler is the only guy who has thrown enough innings to currently qualify for the AL ERA title, but the rest of the group has been pretty reliable in terms of availability and has certainly been reliable in terms of productivity.
Yankees Rotation Questions
The one question, of course, is what this might look like in the playoffs.
Teams don’t use six starting pitchers in the playoffs. Often, they don’t even use five.
The Yankees have used Warren out of the bullpen a couple times recently to start preparing for that possibility. None of the other five names mentioned above have been bullpen arms yet this season, though.
The Yankees just got starter Clarke Schmidt back from injury, and they won’t even consider him as a starter. He’s going to be used in short relief outings the rest of this season before potentially going back to starting next year.
It’s a good problem to have, though. This time of year, many teams are short on arms. The Yankees, in contrast, might have one or two too many. It’s only a problem if you make it one, because starters going to the bullpen in the playoffs is common these days, and it has worked out well in recent years for the back-to-back world champion Dodgers.
Yankees Haven’t Done This Since 1957