When the Yankees traded for Michael Pineda a few years ago, he was a 22-year-old All-Star with a stratospheric ceiling. It looked like they had locked down an ace or at least front-end starter for the next decade.
Then the big right-hander didn’t pitch in 2012 or 2013. When he was finally healthy the year after he went just 5-5, but his sparkling 1.89 ERA appeared to tell a different story. In 13 starts, Pineda surrendered just 56 hits in 76 1-3 innings. Maybe it wasn’t complete, but it was a glimpse, a portal or peek into what many thought was to be a blinding future in the Bronx.