New York Yankees

Yankees Pitching Coach Could Get the Axe After Staff's Disappointing Year

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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New York Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild is being blamed by some fans for his staff’s disappointing season. Should he be replaced after 2016?

When a team doesn’t perform as expected, one of the first places fans look to place blame is the coaching staff. Three of the Yankees five expected starting pitchers in 2016 have been extreme disappointments this season.

Luis Severino, Michael Pineda, and Nathan Eovaldi have all shown flashes of front-of the-rotation ability in their brief big league careers. All are just entering their prime years and were seen by many as the most exciting aspect of the 2016 Yankees.

Instead, that trio have each posted an ERA over 5.00 this season. Severino has been demoted to the minors three times because of poor performance. Pineda has shown excellent raw stuff, but has been able to put everything together consistently. Before undergoing TJ surgery, Eovaldi had shown little progress during his time in New York, despite having one of the best heaters in MLB. 

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Is Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild at fault for these three arms failing to meet expectations? New York’s starters rank 21st in baseball with a 4.63 ERA and 14th with a 4.30 FIP, which is well short of where most anticipated they would be.

The numbers for the bullpen look better, but that is because the Yankees had arguably the three best relief aces in baseball for much of the year. Aside from No-Runs DMC, the Yanks have failed to turn any of their talented young arms in Triple-A into even a competent middle reliever.

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With coaches, sometimes you just need a fresh set of eyes on the problem. Rothschild has failed to make any progress thus far with fixing Pineda or Severino. If the team is going to compete in 2017, they will have to get those guys right.

Now, firing a coach is no guarantee that the problem will improve. For all we know, Rothschild is the reason that Dellin Betances or Masahiro Tanaka have been so excellent this season. At the same time, there is clearly a problem with the Yankees pitching that needs to be addressed. 

It’s possible that the front office is targeting the wrong type of pitchers. Guys like Eovaldi have been brought in because their results weren’t matching their stuff and New York thought they could get more out of them. Maybe Brian Cashman needs to focus more on bringing in pitchers with a track record of run prevention rather than high-ceiling projects?

My guess is that the Yankees will ultimately give Larry Rothschil another chance next season. He seems to be a favorite of manager Joe Girardi. With the skipper’s contract up after 2017, ownership might wait until after next year to make any changes to the coaching staff.

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