There were two question marks when it came to the New York Yankees entering the 2025 season. What was the offense going to look like without Juan Soto? That was the first one. And for the most part it’s been answered and it has been the thing keeping them afloat. Aaron Judge is….well Aaron Judge, but you are also getting contributions from guys like Ben Rice to help bridge the gap. The second question is, how was the rotation going to look like without Gerrit Cole leading the way? Well, that’s been answered so far and it’s not what you wanted to see.

Yankees Rotation Has Been Alarmingly Bad

Say what you will about Gerrit Cole, but the guy can pitch and he is one of the best in this league when he is healthy. Fortunately, the Yankees did go out and sign Max Fried and while he was brought in to help form a two headed monster, he is now the ace of this group. The good thing is that he is pitching like an ace.

Fried has a 1.56 ERA and has the highest WAR among Yankees starters. Fried has done an enormous job of getting his strikeouts and limiting his walks. His 10.90 K/9 leads the team and his 1.56 BB/9 is the best among the starters. He truly has been worth every cent when the front office handed him that deal, and without him the Yankees could be in trouble. So, the alarming part. They are in fact in trouble because after Fried it is quite ugly.

Remember when Marcus Stroman spoke loud and clear that he is a starter in this league? Well, that’s been comical given his performance. Stroman had his last start against the Giants where he didn’t make it out of the first inning and threw 46 pitches. Furthermore, he is now on the IL with knee inflammation. Stroman has an ERA of 11.57, which is tanking this rotations numbers. Stroman doesn’t have the velocity, nor anything to get batters to chase or whiff. It’s tough. But he isn’t alone in delivering poor results.

Will Warren (5.14 ERA) and Carlos Rodon (5.48 ERA) have given the Yankees mixed results. Warren is a rookie and is having to step up largely given the injuries and depth among the starters. Both pitchers have been able to show that they can get you the strikeouts, but are allowing alot of traffic on the base paths with walks. Furthermore, Fried is the only Yankees starter to give up one or fewer home runs and Rodon leads the group with five this season. And don’t even get me started on Carlos Carrasco. I think he is what everyone envisions. Carrasco has a 6.52 ERA, so that tells you all you need to know.

As it currently stands, the Yankees have the worst ERA in baseball among starting rotations, which is not what they envisioned coming into the season. They need help and badly. Luckily reinforcements are coming.

Reinforcements Are on the Way

Thankfully, there are reinforcements on the way for the rotation. If you are a Yankees fan, you do understand this, but if you aren’t you are sleeping on a very good and talented pitcher. Clarke Schmidt is quite good and he will bring enormous depth to the rotation. Schmidt had a 2.85 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP last season. His stuff under the hood was also very good, backing up those numbers.

Schmidt gets batters to whiff and also is good at getting the strikeouts. He does not get barreled to death, but is a ground ball pitcher. Schmidt is the best arm they got outside of Fried and he’s returning from his injury.

After Schmidt though it is very murky. The Yankees will likely need to explore the trade market sooner than later. It remains to be seen what they can part with to land a quality starter. Max Fried has been everything you could ask for, but it is concerning after him.

Cashman and Co. have work to do.