Whether due to injury, poor performance, or the quirks of a 162-game schedule, a team generally needs far more than five starters to make it through a season (11 different pitchers started games for the 2025 Yankees). Each month during the season, we take stock of the Yankees’ options to join the starting rotation through the Rotation Depth Inventory. With Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, and Clarke Schmidt all starting the season on the IL, the team’s depth could be tested early. Let’s take a look at the the team’s top options should they need someone to fill in.
Luis Gil
An argument could be made that Luis Gil is not depth at all. The Yankees will begin the season with a four-man rotation, taking advantage of some early off-days to carry an extra reliever until their 14th game, at which point they will presumably need to add a fifth starter. Gil carries the inside track due to his pedigree, but his role with the Yankees has become increasingly uncertain. After taking home AL Rookie of the Year honors with a breakout 2024 campaign, Gil missed most of 2025 with a lat strain. When he did return, the results were strong (4-1 with a 3.32 ERA in 11 starts) but the team grew concerned with his underlying metrics, as his fastball velo dipped and fastball shape got out of whack, dropping his strikeout rate a full 10 percent.
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This spring was a similar story for Gil — decent enough results, unresolved concerns about his ability to miss bats. His last outing was his most encouraging for pitching coach Matt Blake. “We feel good about the adjustment he made going into the last outing,” Blake said. “He got the quality of the fastball back — the velo up, the miss. All of those things are important to see. Now it’s just a matter of what that looks like the first couple of weeks of the season.”
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That last piece is key. Despite Gil’s strong positioning to assume the fifth starter role once it opens up, the Yankees will be monitoring how he looks in the interim. If he backslides, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the team could look elsewhere to fill in until Cole and Rodón return.
Elmer Rodríguez
While the fireballing Carlos Lagrange got the headlines this offseason, it’s Elmer Rodríguez who’s actually next up in the pecking order. After he was named by Baseball America as the Yankees’ 2025 Minor League Player of the Year, the team added him to its 40-man roster, protecting him from the Rule 5 Draft and giving him a key leg up in the depth charts. Since he won’t require an existing spot to be vacated, Rodríguez could be easily promoted for a spot start or two and sent back down afterwards.
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Acquired from the Red Sox before last season for Carlos Narváez, the right-hander zoomed through the minors, rising from High-A all the way to Triple-A by the end of the year while striking out the second-most batters across the minors. Named the Yankees’ No. 3 prospect before the season by MLB Pipeline, Rodríguez features a fastball that tops out in the high 90s alongside three promising breaking pitches that would give him legitimate options to work with in a big-league rotation.
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Rodríguez is slated to start the year with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and, with a hot start, could force his way into the conversation for New York, particularly if the team has to contend with more injuries.
Carlos Lagrange
As mentioned, Carlos Lagrange has quickly become a darling of the New York media, featuring a fastball that’s reached 103 and would make him a unique weapon in a big-league rotation. The eye test is backed up by the experts: MLB Pipeline named him their No. 2 Yankees prospect before the season. In addition to his all-world heater, the right-hander features a slider, a cutter, and a changeup that have promise.
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After rising to Double-A last season, Lagrange could likely do with some more seasoning. He’ll start the year at Triple-A, where he’ll have the chance to do exactly that. While not likely to get promoted early, if the 21-year-0ld can back up his stuff with results at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre he should be in play for a role with the Yankees at some point this year, either in the rotation or the bullpen.
Ryan Yarbrough & Paul Blackburn
When it comes to a spot start, a nontraditional strategy is always in play as well. Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn have combined for 162 career starts and, while each is expected to begin the year in the bullpen, they’ve stretched out to pitch multiple innings during spring training and could serve as an opener or bulk reliever, working with other pitchers to piece together a bullpen game. It’s also plausible either could segue into a more traditional starting role if they make several outings in a row of increasing length, which is essentially what the Yankees did with Yarbrough last year.
With Luis Gil waiting in the wings, Carlos Rodón eyeing a return as early as April, and Gerrit Cole hoping to be healthy shortly thereafter, the Yankees will look to bridge the gap to their sidelined All-Stars without having to dip into their depth any further. If they do need to turn elsewhere, they have talented youngsters and experienced veterans who should be able to fill in capably for short stretches but might not be ready to shoulder a starter’s full workload.
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