The New York Yankees lost out on Juan Soto in the offseason, but quickly shifted their attention from adding one superstar to adding a plethora of stars all over the roster.
The team added Max Fried, Devin Williams, Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger, among others, shortly after Soto betrayed the Bronx Bombers.
But this was certainly not enough depth to keep New York afloat this season. Less than 20 games into the season, the Yankees have run into a huge issue with their starting rotation, and Marcus Stroman’s disastrous collapse on Friday night reminded the Yankees of this issue.
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The Yankees saw preseason injuries to Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt which quickly handicapped their rotation. Cole is lost for the season, but Gil and Schmidt are expected to return at some point this year.
In place of this trio, the Yankees are using Will Warren, Carlos Carrasco and the aforementioned Stroman.
Carrasco and Warren haven’t been good, but Stroman has already been quite a disaster this season.
Through his first two starts, the righty had thrown 8 2/3 innings and given up eight hits, seven earned runs, four walks and just six strikeouts. But his third start of the season was by far his worst outing.
In just 2/3 an inning, Stroman allowed four hits, three walks and five earned runs. The righty threw just 23 strikes out of his 46 first inning pitches.
Beginning with this game, the Yankees have 13 games in 13 days. They’re going to need their starting pitchers to give them quality starts of at least five innings, but Stroman’s disastrous start has the bullpen picking up the slack for 8 1/3 innings to begin this torturous two-week stretch.
The Yankees need to go after a starting pitcher on the trade block, and they shouldn’t wait any longer. There are set to be plenty of options available for the Bronx Bombers to pick from, but they need to act sooner rather than later.
More MLB: Proposing 4 Potential Yankees Trades To Push New York Over Top – Newsweek