Rothschild used to the A.J. questions

TAMPA, Fla. - The Yankees' new pitching coach gently cut off a reporter's question.

"I know where you're going," Larry Rothschild said with a smile. "You want me to answer before you ask it?''

The question, of course, was the one he has been asked more than any other since he was hired in November: Can he fix A.J. Burnett?

"He's a guy that's had success," Rothschild said Thursday. "He's a guy with good stuff, his arm is healthy and his head's in a good spot. So there's a lot of positives there. Where it goes from there, we'll see."

Rothschild spent two days with Burnett last month at the pitcher's offseason home - where a converted barn has mounds and batting cages - in the Baltimore area.

"Just to get him back in line with the plate, to oversimplify it," Rothschild said of the primary issue they worked on. "We're trying to do a few things to make it a habit where, when he goes out to the mound, he can throw the ball instead of thinking and trying to govern himself to throw strikes. Hopefully, it helps him to get back on the attack [and] confidence will come from that."

Burnett went a career-worst 10-15 with a 5.26 ERA last season, a year he called "garbage." Rothschild, in conversations with Burnett, said he's picked up on a motivation to never go through another season like it again.

"I think he was frustrated, as any good athlete would be that expected more of himself," Rothschild said. "I think people see that he had a letdown and they get frustrated by that, but I think the impact on the player is a lot greater than that. So whatever frustration is out there with him, he feels it a multitude of times more. He's got a good attitude about things."

As for the rest of the rotation, Rothschild mentioned Ivan Nova, who enters camp as the No. 4 starter, as "a kid with good enough" stuff. He hopes Sergio Mitre, Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia all pitch well enough in spring training to make the decision about the fifth starter a tough one.

He spoke in general terms about the highly regarded arms in the system. Though he didn't specify, prospects Dellin Betances, Manuel Banuelos and Andrew Brackman are among the minor-leaguers whom Rothschild, who lives 15 minutes from the complex, worked with in the last month.

"Hopefully, guys can grab on to this and run with it and pitch well for us," Rothschild said. "If not, I think at some point we'll find somebody that will, whether it's a younger guy coming up or going out and getting somebody."