The battered New York Yankees starting rotation is being held together with Band-Aids and glue, as the defending American League champs keep their fingers crossed that injured pitchers Clarke Schmidt and 2024 Rookie of the Year Luis Gil recover more quickly than expected. In addition to those two gaps in the five-man rotation, staff ace Gerrit Cole is sidelined for the entire 2024 season with Tommy John surgery.
Even the Yankee organization’s No. 2 pitching prospect Chase Hampton, who was expected to see at least a few starts with the big club in 2025, saw his season grind to a screeching halt in Spring Training when he felt discomfort in his elbow and opted to have the Tommy John procedure immediately rather than try to pitch through it.
As a result, the Yankees — who raised their record to 7-5 with a one-run win over the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday, salvaging one game of a three-game set at Comerica Park — have been forced to patch up their rotation with three pitchers they had not envisioned as 2025 starters.
Yankees Have 3 Starters Not Planned to be There
Marcus Stroman, the subject of seemingly endless trade speculation in the offseason as the Yankees tried to rid themselves of his $18 million salary after he collapsed down the stretch in 2024 and was left off the team’s playoff roster, has now made two starts in 2025, getting shelled to the tune of seven runs in 8 2/3 innings.
Then there’s rookie Will Warren, formerly the organization’s top pitching prospect but now certified big leaguer who has managed to surrender six earned runs in nine innings over a pair of starts.
Finally, the Yankees have been forced to award a starting rotation spot to 38-year-old Carlos Carrasco, a 16-year veteran who came to the Yankees on a minor league contract in Spring Training after pitching the previous season with the Cleveland Guardians, compiling a 3-10 won-loss record and 5.64 ERA in 103 2/3 innings over 21 starts.
“The New York Yankees‘ starting rotation this season has resembled a leaky boat more than a finely tuned engine,” wrote Andres Chavez of Empire Sports Media on Wednesday. “Carlos Carrasco, once a bright spot in spring training, has been shelled to the tune of a 7.71 ERA, the worst of the bunch.”
Empire Sports Media founder Alexander Wilson emphasized how disappointing Carrasco has been.
“The 38-year-old has struggled to find his footing,” Wilson wrote. “His velocity has dipped below 92 mph, way down from his prime. When hitters know what’s coming and aren’t afraid of being blown away, it’s a dangerous game — and right now, Carrasco is losing it.”
An Alternative to Carrasco is Available
But Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report came up with a solution — sign 32-year-old free agent Spencer Turnbull, one of 59 MLB free agents remaining unsigned three weeks into the regular season.
“There sits Spencer Turnbull, ripe for the picking, while fans all over the country (and in Canada) try to tell their teams to do something,” Miller wrote. “Among the 212 pitchers who logged at least 350 innings pitched from 2018-24, Turnbull’s 3.83 FIP ranks 65th, slightly better than Jack Flaherty and slightly worse than Nathan Eovaldi.”
The 2014 Detroit Tigers second-round draft pick missed all of 2022 with Tommy John, and suffered a neck ailment that limited him to seven starts for the Tigers in 2023. But with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2024, Turnbull appeared to find a groove again. He started seven games and came out of the bullpen in 10 more, striking out 58 in 54 1/3 innings, with a sterling 2.65 ERA.
Back in 2021, Turnbull threw a no-hitter agains the Seattle Mariners, Detroit’s first since future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander threw the second of his three career no-nos on May 7, 2011, in Toronto against the Blue Jays.
According to Miller, Turnbull’s injury history does not explain why he “can’t find a one-year contract while we’ve got … Carlos Carrasco in the Yankees rotation.”
Turnbull pitched for the Phillies on a one-year, $2.2 million contract, but SpoTrac predicts that he will sign for two years and $8.8 million.
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. Vankin is also the author of five nonfiction books on a variety of topics, as well as nine graphic novels including most recently “Last of the Gladiators” published by Dynamite Entertainment. More about Jonathan Vankin
