The New York Yankees’ first meaningful offseason move is to make a change to their coaching staff.
According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Yankees will part ways with pitching coach Larry Rothschild.
Larry Rothschild is being removed as #Yankees pitching coach. NYY will likely announce later today offically. @Buster_ESPN mentioned possible removal first.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) October 28, 2019
Rothschild had been the Yankees’ pitching coach since 2011. That’s a long time to stick in one position in the sport, and the Yankees clearly felt things had gotten stale. Despite winning 103 games, the Yankees sat firmly in the middle of the road statistically with a 4.31 team ERA. Their starters in particular underwhelmed, going through one stretch that was so bad that Rothschild publicly took the blame for their issues.
Another reason for Rothschild’s removal, according to Sherman, is that he was more old school and did not entirely adapt to the team’s preference to use more “new-age” strategies.
#Yankees more and more are moving toward new-age techniques to develop/game prep their pitchers, from the minors up. Rothschild was not totally resistant, he used analytic data to meld a pitching plan. But he was clearly more old school, than new.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) October 28, 2019
Joe Girardi, who originally hired Rothschild, just found a new job. Rothschild may just follow him there now that his Yankee obligations are finished.
