For starters, Yankees feel good about pitching despite top arms starting season on shelf
Max Fried #54 of the New York Yankees pitches during the first inning against the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, Sep. 24, 2025. Credit: Jim McIsaac
TAMPA, Fla. — It is somewhat remarkable.
Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon and Clarke Schmidt are expected to be a part of the Yankees' rotation at some point, but the club will start the season with the three high-profile starting pitchers on the injured list.
That would be catastrophic for most teams, and it still could shake out that way for the Yankees. As spring training came to an end, though, this could be said with certainty: It has been a long time, a decade at least, since the Yankees have felt as good about their pitching, especially their starting pitching, as they currently do.
Max Fried will start Wednesday night's season opener in San Francisco and be followed in some order by Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, Ryan Weathers and Luis Gil.
Behind them are two veteran swingmen, both of whom spent spring training being stretched out to provide additional depth, righthander Paul Blackburn and lefthander Ryan Yarbrough. (They’ll start the season in the bullpen, assuming there are no injuries.)
Then there are two pitching prospects, both of whom many rival talent evaluators see as close to being big league-ready, if not there already. Righthanders Elmer Rodriguez and Carlos Lagrange both had standout camps.
Lagrange, because of his 6-7 frame and 103-mph fastball, prompted the most headlines, but Rodriguez generally is considered the more refined of the two and closer to the majors as a starter. (If the need arises in the big-league bullpen, though, Lagrange would be the more likely of the two to get a crack there because of that fastball.)
“Three of your [rotation] guys starting on the IL is a disaster,” a National League scout said. “You look at what the Yankees have in their place and you’re like, ‘That still might be pretty good.’ And it’s not like it has to last the season.”
Gil, the 2024 American League Rookie of the Year, had the least impressive camp of the quintet as he struggled at times with his velocity and command. However, the Yankees and rival talent evaluators mostly praised what they saw from his stuff and generally believe that the righthander is closer than not to recapturing the form of his rookie year, when he went 15-7 with a 3.50 ERA in 29 starts.
The starting pitcher the Yankees have the least question about is Fried. The lefthander, signed to an eight-year, $218 million free-agent deal before the 2025 season, pitched like the ace the Yankees needed him to be. After Cole was lost for the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery in March, Fried went 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA in 32 starts, throwing a career-high 195 1/3 innings.
Though there are varying degrees of questions surrounding the rest of the rotation, the fewest surround Fried, a three-time All-Star who is 92-41 with a 3.03 ERA in his nine seasons in the majors.
The Yankees believe the lefthanded Weathers — an offseason acquisition in a trade with the Marlins — has “hidden gem” written all over him. Weathers had mostly ho-hum seasons from 2021-23 with the Padres and then the Marlins before showing promise, when healthy, the last two years.
Weathers posted a 3.63 ERA in 16 starts with the Marlins in 2024 but missed three months of the season with a left index finger strain. Last season, also with Miami, he went 2-2 with a 3.99 ERA in eight starts. He missed most of 2025, first with a left flexor muscle strain and later with a left lat strain.
“He’s really impressed everyone,’’ manager Aaron Boone said early in spring training. “His stuff is real. The big thing for him is getting out there and going to the post [staying healthy].”
Warren, 26, is coming off a season in which he went 9-8 with a 4.44 ERA in a league-leading 33 starts. Though the righthander had a handful of early-inning blowups that torpedoed starts and contributed to an unimpressive season ERA, he far more often than not gave the Yankees a chance to win when he took the mound. Proving durable enough to take the mound 33 times was a significantly underappreciated aspect of his season.
Warren, whose supreme self-confidence reminds many of former Yankees righthander Michael King when he was developing into a starter, was among those who made a positive impression throughout the six-week camp.
No, one, however, impressed as much as Schlittler, 24. The 6-6 righthander, who dazzled after a midseason call-up in 2025, showed up for spring training with a rotation spot already secured, but he didn’t arrive with that attitude. During the offseason, he prepared as if he had nothing guaranteed in camp and would have to win a job. He went about flashing some of the sharpest stuff seen by any Yankee in camp, whether in bullpen sessions, live batting practice sessions or games.
The Yankees have been barely able to contain their enthusiasm about the potential they see in Schlittler, who came out of the gate throwing 99 mph, even as his early days of camp were slowed by a minor issue with his lower back.
“The stuff is just nasty now,” one National League scout said. “That’s potential top-of-the-rotation stuff. Really interested what a full season looks like for him.”
And so the overall enthusiasm when it comes to the Yankees' starting pitching comes down to this: Rodon, due back perhaps as soon as mid-April, and Cole, due back perhaps as soon as early May, will be added to what already appears to be a formidable rotation. (Schmidt, who underwent Tommy John surgery last July, isn’t expected back until late August at the earliest.)
“I like the arms,” general manager Brian Cashman said midway through camp of what had stood out to him. “The arms that we’re seeing, there’s a lot of quality. Hopefully it will stay that way, but guys are throwing well.”
Assuming the healthy returns of Rodon and Cole to go with what already is in the system as starting depth, Boone said: “You’re talking about 10, 12 guys that I would feel very comfortable starting a major league game and giving us a chance to win.”
But Boone, a third-generation big-leaguer who fully understands the unpredictability of pitching, appropriately threw in a cautionary note regarding that depth.
“That’s comforting,” he said. “But that’s all it is. We have to bring that to fruition, too.''
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
