During the 2021 campaign, there were several times when I thought to myself that the Yankees could really use Masahiro Tanaka in their rotation. Don’t get me wrong, the Yankees pitching was fabulous this season, ranking fifth in the AL in ERA. Even so, that manifested in an unexpected way. Just about 100 of those innings came from Nestor Cortes Jr. and Luis Gil. Together, they delivered an ERA around 3.00. Despite Corey Kluber’s short sample of innings, he was still quite effective with an ERA lower than the team average as well.
However, Kluber is gone, and the pair of Gil and Cortes do not have glowing projections.