TAMPA — Larry Rothschild has been through this long enough to know that the talent in the Yankees’ rotation is secondary to its availability.
“It’s not always the best pitching staff, a lot of times it’s the staff that can stay the healthiest,” the veteran pitching coach said at the Yankees’ minor league complex, ahead of pitchers and catchers officially reporting Wednesday. “Obviously there are some things we need to watch with our guys.”
The Yankees brought back CC Sabathia and J.A. Happ on free-agent deals and traded for James Paxton to fortify their rotation, alongside Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka. But the experienced and accomplished group does not come without question marks surrounding its health.
Chief among them is Sabathia. The veteran lefty had another surgery on his right knee in October, a body part that has landed him on the disabled list more than once in recent years despite pitching through it effectively, but it paled in comparison to the procedure he had in December. After experiencing acid reflux, heartburn and more sweating than usual while riding an exercise bike, the 38-year-old discovered he had a blocked artery in his heart and underwent surgery to insert a stent.
Sabathia underwent a stress test on Jan. 8, which cleared him to begin working out and getting ready for spring training. But the situation may still need monitoring throughout camp.
“As far as I know, right now he’s a full-go as far as activity,” Rothschild said. “I know because of the timing of it and everything, we have to come in and it’s going to be a little slower, although he’s going to do the work and everything. But I think we have to manage that by how it is day to day. We’ll find out more as camp progresses.”
Sabathia will start the year by serving a five-game suspension — for throwing at Tampa Bay’s Jesus Sucre on Sept. 27 — but Rothschild said it’s too early to tell if he will be fully ready after that.
“We have to manage the knee as much as everything else for effectiveness,” Rothschild said. “Obviously his health and his wellbeing going forward is a priority.”
Paxton, meanwhile, has been on the disabled list at least once in each of the last five years. Tanaka, Happ and Severino have largely been durable. Tanaka has been pitching through a partially torn UCL, but he only missed time last season when he strained both hamstrings running the bases.
Last year, the Yankees used 12 different starting pitchers to make it through 162 games. Rothschild said he expects to have a mix of three or four pitchers beyond the rotation who will have to contribute at some point down the line. That group could include Jonathan Loaisiga, Domingo German, Chance Adams and Luis Cessa, all of whom made starts last season. Loaisiga missed more than a month last year with a shoulder injury, but Rothschild said he will enter camp healthy.
Lefty Jordan Montgomery also looms also a potential option for the second half of the season as he works his way back from the Tommy John surgery he had in June.
As for if Rothschild would ever consider using a six-man rotation, he said it would be partly dictated by the schedule.
“At times, yeah, I’m not opposed to it,” he said. “But if it’s leading guys into seven and eight days [between starts], I think it becomes somewhat problematic, although not for everybody. I think it depends on the schedule and where guys are as far as innings and how they’ve progressed, whether they’re at a point in the season where they might be tired or they might need a break just to recover a little bit more. We’ll have to see.”