Yankee Fans Shouldn’t Panic If Michael Pineda Is Sent to the Minors
March 29, 2012 · Peter Alfano · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
It doesn’t matter how often fans are told that trades really can’t be evaluated for several years.
If Michael Pineda begins the 2012 season in the bullpen (please, not that) or down on the farm, fans and media will proclaim that the Seattle Mariners knew something when they traded the best young pitcher this side of Clayton Kershaw to the Yankees for Jesus Montero.
The Yankees apparently are considering a starting rotation that includes Freddy Garcia and has Pineda and Ivan Nova battling for the fifth spot.
That seems wrong on so many fronts. Although Pineda finished 9-10 with the Mariners last year because of a decline during the second half of the season, he is a potentially dominant pitcher who would anchor the Yankees staff for years to come.
Nova was 16-4, and it is hard to imagine the Yankees sending him to the bullpen or to the minors.
Yet that is exactly what we are hearing out of New York, where manager Joe Girardi and general manager Brian Cashman would rather have Garcia’s experience in the rotation with CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda and Phil Hughes, leaving Nova and Pineda to battle for the fifth spot.
What happens when Andy Pettitte returns?
The Yankees will deal with that scenario when it happens.
Left to our own devices, Garcia would be the odd man out.
We would even trade Kuroda before messing with the potentially fragile psyche of Pineda and Nova.
But here is what we do know: The Yankees value age and experience over youth, which may account for their mishandling of Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy and Hughes.
Let’s take a look who may be the odd man out of the Yankees rotation:
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