The New York Yankees' Rotation: Six Is One Too Many

The New York Yankees' 2008 offseason was considered to be a huge success at the time. GM Brian Cashman and George Steinbrenner signed CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett. Those three signings led to a World Series Championship in 2009.

The first two players mentioned have been consistently good, if not great, for the Bombers. The real question now is about Burnett.

As of now, the Yankees have a six-man starting rotation. One of the six pitchers needs to be removed from it. The three pitchers who could be removed are Burnett, Phil Hughes, and Ivan Nova.

Nova is a rookie who is showing promise, Hughes seems to be returning to his All-Star form from last season, and Burnett has had two poor years in a row.

Fans got a good glimpse of the way all three pitchers are going during the series with Minnesota Twins this weekend.

On Friday, Phil Hughes pitched 7.2 inning of one-run ball. Burnett took the loss on Saturday and couldn’t get out of the second inning. Nova pitched seven shutout innings in a win yesterday.

The main reason that Burnett is still in the rotation is because of his massive contract. After 2008, he signed a five-year, $82.5 million contract. He seemed to be worth the money in 2009 when he had a record of 13-9 with a 4.04 ERA.

He was an integral piece of the Yankees championship run. He was part of a three-man rotation along with Sabathia and Andy Pettitte. Those three pitchers carried the Bombers to their 27th title.

Burnett has been a bust since. Over the past two seasons, he has had a combined record of 19-25 with an ERA around 5.00. Burnett seems to be a nice guy (off the field), and he has the confidence of both Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman. But confidence among New York fans is waning.

A.J. isn’t a tradeable asset, and he won’t be released because of his massive contract. All the Yankees can do is live out the contract and hope Burnett can turn it around. The question is whether Burnett can help the Yankees win now?

As of now, Burnett is the worst pitcher in this six-man rotation. What is so frustrating for the fans is that Burnett arguably has better stuff than staff ace CC Sabathia. He just can’t harness it.

He is wild. He has a curveball that can strike out any batter or hit any batter. His fastball has so much movement that it could barely hit the outside corner of the plate or end up in a hitter’s happy zone. Every pitch A.J. throws has the velocity and movement to be unhittable.

He gets in too much trouble by walking batters and letting his fastball move over the middle of the plate.

Some of A.J.’s problems can be attributed to his delivery. He has a lot of extraneous movement while pitching. Because of the extra motion, it is difficult for him to have the same delivery on every pitch. This is one of the main reasons he can be so wild at times and unhittable at others.

The most annoying thing for fans is that this can change during a game. One inning he is great, and the next he could be getting hit all over the ball park.

His problems can also be mental ones. As Yogi Berra once said “90% of this game is half mental.” Unfortunately, it is impossible to know if Burnett will ever be in the right state of mind to be great.

So the question is what should the Yankees do about their rotation in order to win now? Phil Hughes was a great set up man in 2009, so they could possibly put him back in the bullpen.

Ivan Nova still has options to be sent back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Burnett could also be put in the bullpen, although he is a career starter.

The bullpen isn’t a great option for Hughes or Burnett because the bullpen is so good that it would be hard to give either of them a specific role or regular playing time.

Nova has shown so much potential this year that it would be hard to send him back to the minors. The reason this is a sticky situation is because there really isn’t a good option.

The best option is to take Burnett out of the rotation (if they want to win now). The drawback to this is that the Yankees would risk losing the good A.J. Burnett for good.

He can’t fix himself without playing time. Sending Nova to Triple-A or Hughes to the bullpen could stunt their growth as pitchers.

The Yankees have been trying to spin this by saying they have a good problem. They have too many good pitchers. The truth is that if handled incorrectly, this could hurt the Yankees for years to come.

Burnett has put the Yankees in a bind, and it will fall on him to get them out of it.