NY pitching depth 2020

jon abbey

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Aaron Boone said this a week ago and it has stuck with me, I am very curious to try to pin down exactly who he is talking about here, and maybe see how they develop this season.

"one of the things that's really exciting for me about this camp is that kind of 15-30 pitcher or maybe guys competing for a spot in the rotation or in the bullpen and then through our 30 guys, there's so many guys that you can really dream upon, that you can really picture having a really good big league career and Deivi certainly falls into that category. It's exciting to see the young arms that are starting to emerge for us.""

https://www.sny.tv/yankees/news/takeaways-from-yankees-manager-aaron-boone-including-impressions-of-deivi-garcia/312766258
So presumably he is including Paxton/German/Severino on this list, so the first 14 would be those three, Cole, Tanaka, Happ, Montgomery, Chapman, Britton, Kahnle, Ottavino, Green, Loaisiga and Cessa. So 15-30 we've got something like:

Michael King
Deivi Garcia
Ben Heller
Jonathan Holder
Brooks Kriske
Nick Nelson
Albert Abreu
Luis Gil
Luis Medina
Miguel Yajure

All on the 40 man already, so we're up to 24. Bettis, Hale and Tropeano are all non-roster invitees with experience, that is 27. Clarke Schmidt is 28 (and probably a lot higher, more like 19 in terms of pecking order to be able to help this year, but not on the 40 man yet), and then I guess take 2 from the Avilan/Otero/Lyons/Acevedo/Zych grab bag of meh (although rooting hard for Acevedo).

So I don't quite know about 30 but I would say 15-28 is an easy statement to understand. A lot of those younger 40 man protects are not ready but have been showing already this week that they have the stuff to get out big league hitters when they do get called. The Rays used an A lineup against NY on Sunday, and Schmidt/Nelson/Yajure/Abreu combined for a 4 1 1 0 6 2 line. Obviously yikes on the walks but only one hit is impressive.
 

OurF'ingCity

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Going off of jon abbey's OP, the potential silver lining for Yankees fans is that they'll really have a chance to see what their various prospects can do, kind of similar to how in past years all the injuries to position players allowed them to try out/feature various position player prospects.

But I get that is small comfort when you are in 100% GFIN mode like the Yankees are.
 

jon abbey

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Yeah, so everyone moves up one with Severino out (sigh), but on the slightly bright side, TJ Sikkema should be added somewhere after Keith Law made him NY's 4th prospect overall this week, their 3rd pitcher. He was drafted 38th overall last June with the pick they got back in the Sonny Gray to CIN deal (along with Josh Stowers), he was very good in the SEC in 2019 and then the Cape Cod league so NY did not let him pitch much for them after signing, but he should move quickly. I think he was somewhere around 130 innings in 2019 between everywhere.

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4. T.J. Sikkema, LHP

Sikkema barely pitched after the Yankees took him in the comp round in 2019. The University of Missouri starter works with three pitches, up to 96 mph with a slider and change, but gets raves for his ability to mix and match, changing slots and using both sides of the plate.

https://viewsfrom314ft.com/draft-profile-tj-sikkema-38th-pick-sonny-gray-trade/
 

jon abbey

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I was worried in the offseason that NY was being forced to protect too many young arms on the 40 man who had zero chance of helping in 2020, so essentially dead roster spots for the season.

But already this spring those guys have shown that they could be bullpen arms already in an emergency. All of Deivi/Medina/Gil/Nelson/Yajure have MLB quality stuff now, overmatching legit big leaguers at times. Medina especially, he might have better stuff overall than Severino even. If he picks up where he left off the last month or two last year, he is going to fly up prospect charts.
 

jon abbey

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We have not seen Ben Heller or Chad Bettis yet this spring, I believe, both of whom I had as borderline candidates to make the team coming in, so it'd be nice to know what is going on there. We haven't seen Chapman yet either but that was the plan from the start and his first game is soon.
 

Marciano490

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Sorry for the fantasy related question, but what is Schmidt’s upside long term? He’s available in my dynasty league and I have enough depth to stash him a year, but can he be a 1 or 2?
 

jon abbey

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Sorry for the fantasy related question, but what is Schmidt’s upside long term? He’s available in my dynasty league and I have enough depth to stash him a year, but can he be a 1 or 2?
Probably not a 1 or a 2, he is more like a 3 or a 4, but if it helps, there is a genuine shot (25% at this second?) that he will start the season as NY's 5th starter. He has innings limitation issues this year and if you are stashing guys longer-term, it's worth noting that Deivi and Medina are both more than 3 years younger than him.