Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery still there for Yankees’ taking

Blake Snell (AP Photo/Mike McGinnis)

It’s no secret that the Yankees’ biggest woes last year came from inconsistent pitching.

While Gerrit Cole had Cy Young award-winning outings every fifth day, the rest of the starting pitchers didn’t pull their weight. The jab-and-cross promise of Cole and Carlos Rodón didn’t come to life because of Rodón’s injuries, yielding inconsistent starts when he could take the mound. This problem was exacerbated when the other leftie in the rotation, Nestor Cortes, also suffered a shoulder injury.

Fast forward to this winter: The only pitching the Yankees have gone after and secured was Marcus Stroman. He’s back in the American League for the first time since 2019 when he was traded from Toronto to the Mets. After serving two years in Chicago with the Cubs, his home will be the Bronx for the next two years with an option for a third.

This puts the Bronx Bombers’ current starting rotation as such: Cole, Rodón, Stroman, Cortes, and Clarke Schmidt. Schmidt worked his way up from relieving to starting, amassing a 4.64 ERA, 9-9 record, and 149 strikeouts in the 2023 season over 159.0 innings. At one point in September, he was tied for third in the AL amongst pitchers with the most starts (23) while also allowing three runs or less per outing.

So what’s left in the free agency market for other potential starting pitchers? Let’s take a look.

Blake Snell

The LHP had a dominant 2023 season, his third year in San Diego: a 2.25 ERA and 234 strikeouts over 180 innings. Snell had the lowest ERA in the majors last season and placed third in strikeouts. His signature pitch? A simple four-seam fastball, that casually averaged in the mid-90s.

The kicker is the drop-off from there to the rest of his arsenal: After his fastball, his most frequently used pitch is his curveball, clocking in the averaging near 80 mph on the radar gun.

Combine those two starkly different pitches, and you get a high whiff percentage: 51.9% whiff…