New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi has yet to name the fifth starter in the team's rotation with Opening Day less than six days away. Adam Warren was once considered the front-runner, but that may not be the case after Tuesday.
Earlier today Warren was knocked around in a minor league game in Tampa and surrendered five runs (four earned) on nine hits and one walk in four innings, which was his worst outing of the spring. The right-hander was 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA and 1.08 WHIP in five starts with the Yankees in spring training before today's debacle.
"The Yankees haven't officially named Warren their fifth starter, but at this point it seems safest to list him as a member of the rotation," writes Chad Jennings of the LoHud Yankees Blog. "Choosing anyone else for the fifth starter role would be a significant surprise at this point. After Scott Baker was released, Bryan Mitchell was optioned and Kyle Davies was reassigned, the Yankees five starters seem pretty clear."
Mr. Jennings could be forgetting about Esmil Rogers, who has been in the discussion for the No. 5 starter job for much of the spring. The right-hander appeared in seven games (four starts) and finished 0-0 with a 2.57 ERA, 1.29 WHIP and 13 strikeouts (14 innings of work).
It was originally believed Rogers' less-than-stellar outings on March 19 and 24 would help Warren's chances, but now the tables may have turned. Rogers has much more experience in the MLB and although he's primarily a reliever, he has logged 43 starts in his six-year career.
"The stuff is better than the way he's pitched the last two outings," Girardi said following Rogers' rough start against the Detroit Tigers last week, via Wallace Matthews of ESPNNewYork.com.
But he still didn't indicate if it affected the pitcher's chances to make the rotation.
"It's something that we have to talk about, and I'm sure in the next week or so we'll talk a lot about what we're going to do here," Girardi added.
Warren has only appeared in 104 games since 2012 and made just three starts in his career. He proved to be successful coming out of the bullpen in 69 games last season and maintained a 2.97 ERA and 1.106 WHIP in 78 2/3 innings, which could convince Girardi to leave him as a reliever.
Either way, one of these two men will be the starter and the other will be a reliever. It's up to Girardi to decide and it could depend on Rogers' next outing.
