Joe Girardi has concerns about health of Yankees’ pitching staff

The New York Yankees have gone into the offseason and not really addressed their starting pitching. In fact, it arguably got somewhat worse when they traded Adam Warren in the deal to get Starlin Castro. That has to be worrisome for manager Joe Girardi, who acknowledged he has concerns about the health of the team’s starting pitching.

“Yeah, I think there’s a concern because of health, when you think about (Masahiro) Tanaka coming off an injury, (Nathan) Eovaldi coming off an injury, CC (Sabathia) with a knee he’s had to deal with. Michael Pineda, that was the most innings (160.2) he’s thrown after a substantial period of time,” Girardi said this week via the New York Daily News.

“There is some concern. We had a lot of concerns last year and the guys did OK for us. You can go into spring training with five starters that are locked in and you can still have concerns. You’d better have depth.”

Tanaka’s is the team’s ace, but he is coming off an elbow surgery. He has posted two very solid seasons for the Yankees since coming over from Japan. Eovaldi, a flame thrower who went 14-3 last season, also is coming off an elbow injury that led him to be shutdown for the later part of the season. Sabathia has been constantly bothered by his knee injury and went to alcohol rehab last season. Luis Severino, who is just 21, might be the team’s most intriguing pitcher. He went 5-3 with a 2.89 ERA in 11 starts last season as a rookie and thankfully does not have injury concerns.

The odd man out right now appears to be Ivan Nova, who had a couple of promising seasons but went 6-11 with a 5.07 ERA last season. Of course, given what Girardi says about wanting depth on his staff, perhaps the Yankees would not be inclined to deal Nova anytime soon.