How Does Frankie Montas’ Injury Impact the Yankees Starting Rotation?
Earlier today Yankees Skipper Aaron Boone told the media that Frankie Montas will undergo shoulder surgery on February 21st and could miss the entire season with a best case scenario of a late season return.
Brendan Kuty, of The Athletic, reported that it is unknown as to what the exact issue is with Montas’ shoulder and that an arthroscopic procedure will be performed, thus allowing for the doctors to provide a clearer recovery time frame.
Montas was acquired at the trade deadline in 2022 and only made eight starts for the Yankees before reaggravating his shoulder injury that caused him to miss most of July.
The Yankees were set to roll out one of the best rotations in baseball this year, headed by Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Nestor Cortes Jr., and Luis Severino. Montas was set to be the fifth starter but now the Yankees will look to Domingo German or Clarke Schmidt to fill that last spot.
This isn’t a big loss for the Yankees rotation but as the famous saying goes, you can never have enough pitching. Montas was already expected to miss the first month of the season while he continued his rehab program and German or Schmidt were set to be the fifth starter for the time being.
German has the experience advantage over Schmidt as he has been a part of the starting rotation since 2018, pitching to a career 4.37 ERA and 1.20 WHIP. German missed the first half of the 2022 season with a shoulder injury but was effective in his role upon his return, posting a 3.61 ERA over 15 games.
Schmidt was predominantly used out of the bullpen last year as he only started 2 games out of 29 appearances, posting a 3.12 ERA and 1.20 WHIP. Originally, Schmidt was developing in the minors as a starter but given the Yankees needs over the past two seasons he was used as an opener/long reliever.
Schmidt deserves a chance this spring to compete for the last spot in the rotation, his main pitch is his slider, which he threw 37.9% of the time in 2022 and his 4-seam fastball hovers around 95 mph and tops off at 97 mph.
Overall, the Yankees rotation is in great shape headed into the season, many teams could only dream that their sole starting pitching concern was their fifth starter. It should be interesting to see how spring training plays out for German and Schmidt and who the Yankees ultimately decide to go with. I believe they will go with German but if history has taught us anything, Schmidt will get plenty of opportunities throughout the 6-month long season.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on who you believe will be the Yankees fifth starter in the comments below. Please feel free to reach out anytime and connect with me on LinkedIn.
