The Yankees need to acquire starters, though it’s unclear what kind of player they will target.
Compared to a day before, the Yankees have one fewer option to strengthen their rotation. After agreeing to a $38.5 million two-year contract, right-hander Lucas Giolito joined the Red Sox with the intention of making a comeback in the tough AL East. The possibilities are getting fewer and fewer for New York if they want to start looking to the mid-tier of the market for assistance.
I highly recommend reading Alex Eisert’s excellent coverage of Lucas Giolito’s recent ups and downs, which can be found here. Despite his continued inconsistency, Giolito showed that he could be a valuable member of a staff—if not the ace of old. This was one of the season’s best aspects. Although the second half’s team rotation undoubtedly contributed to his unsteadiness, it wasn’t the only cause of his problems.
Nevertheless, only in terms of availability, few starters had as much potential and also possessed a respectable level of dependability. In the last three seasons, Giolito has started over thirty games, and since making his way into the major leagues, he has not missed any time.
Giolito represents the middle of the mid-tier free agent pool in many aspects, and although the Yankees were able to afford his contract, it wasn’t exactly a steal. Even for a team like the Yankees, there needs to be more than just the need to fill innings if you are willing to pay nearly $20 million in average annual salary for that player. You also need to have a solid belief in his ability to return to form.
Now that Giolito is out of the picture, the Yankees have two options for completing the rest of their staff. Both will reveal a great deal about their goals and how they view their available options. It’s difficult to imagine them choosing to accept a nine-figure offer for one of the prominent names still available, as was discussed the other day.
Hyun-Jin Ryu and Marcus Stroman are two possibilities that, while they don’t have the same potential as Giolito or other players at this stage of their careers, may still provide you with decent innings. Considering that he just returned from a serious injury, Ryu is an odd choice for this spot, but in the 11 starts he made after his return in 2023, he was excellent, with a 3.46 ERA. More significantly, his demands should take into account the injury worries, which suggests he would probably come at a very fair price.
By now, Stroman is a well-known commodity. He won’t surprise anyone, but his versatility and expertise allow him to perform well in a variety of settings. The go-for-broke selections, which are wagers a team like the Yankees can most likely afford to make but must be realistic about what they’re getting into, are on the other side of this list.
It’s a terrific idea to include Frankie Montas or James Paxton because, at their finest, they can provide you more than most names at their price. However, expecting more than 250 innings from the two together would be unrealistic.
In this exercise, Giolito is the player who most closely resembles the middle ground, so it will be interesting to see which direction the Yankees choose when they finally bring in a starter or two.
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