The way the Yankees construct their starting rotation has changed significantly since winning their last World Series in 2009. It’s a little jarring to see what the Yankees’ rotations looked like in years following their 1996 World Series win.
For one, there used to be five strong horses pulling the cart, and three or four of them were seasoned veterans. In juxtaposition to the starting rotations from 1996-2003, the Yankees’ starting pitching in 2020 looks like picked-over supermarket shelves in the hours before a natural disaster.
There used to be an amazing amount of year-to-year consistency, as well, with the same guys filling the same spots in the rotation for multiple seasons.