After Sonny Gray’s horrible performance Wednesday afternoon against the Baltimore Orioles, the New York Yankees have elected to remove him from the rotation, replacing him with Lance Lynn.
Gray’s stats are awful this year. He has an 8-8 record with a 5.56 ERA in 103.2 innings in his 21 starts. It’s been bad and as unpleasant to watch as you’d think.
The thing is that Gray had been looking good. He went six shutout innings on July 11 in Baltimore, had a solid game against the Mets on the 21st, and spun five scoreless against the Royals at Yankee Stadium on July 26. It looked like he had turned a corner! Then he had this complete stinker against the Orioles on Wednesday, and now he is done.
I do not completely disagree with the move. In fact, I largely agree with it. Sonny has been bad this year, but I think I would have given him another start, just because the rotation depth is so thin. After Lynn, you’re really playing with fire, especially with JA Happ now on the DL with Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease.
The next guy is Luis Cessa, and nobody likes that. Both Domingos (German and Acevedo) are injured right now, and after that, it’s a bunch of more guys in the minors with no experience. Chance Adams figures to be the next guy up, likely starting Saturday’s game, actually, since Cessa had to pitch Thursday in Boston.
If it were up to me, I would have skipped Sonny this time around in the order, for sure. They can’t have him in there right now. I would have let him sit a rotation out or even give him the phantom-DL treatment and then bring him back in a week or two while they are in this stretch of bad teams after Boston.
I think taking Sonny completely out of the rotation now might mean we lose any chance of production out of him forever, and I don’t feel like his stuff really translates to the bullpen like Lynn’s does.
If Sonny comes back and pitches a good game, then he will have had good outings in four of his last five starts! I feel like taking him out of the rotation forever may be a bit harsh. That having been said, I feel that if he comes back and pitches poorly, then he shouldn’t be allowed to start another game this year, so maybe I am the one being overly-reactionary!
I would guess, though, that Sonny will get starts again soon. Like this month. The Yankees are going to want to get a struggling Severino more days of rest down the stretch, and they are well aware of how much better Masahiro Tanaka and CC Sabathia perform on extra rest at this point in each of their respective careers.
I’m a guy who is probably a little too nice to Gray, but I still just can’t help but look at the numbers and think he should be starting, as frustrating as he’s been. His ERA (and his other stats) has gotten demonstratively better each month this year, his one August start notwithstanding. Take a gander:
- April: 6.67 ERA, .393 opponent OBP, .805 opponent OPS
- May: 5.16 ERA, .347 opponent OBP, .807 opponent OPS
- June: 4.64 ERA, .316 opponent OBP, .749 opponent OPS
- July: 3.44 ERA, .313 opponent OBP, .670 opponent OPS
He’s gotten better each month this season at limiting damage.
As weird as it is, his Home/Away splits indicate both a troubling mental hurdle at Yankee Stadium, but also a capable pitcher away from the Bronx, that I don’t think the Yankees are quite ready to give up on altogether, even though he’s lost his rotation spot.
- Home: 7.71 ERA, 49.0 IP, .313 BAA (11 starts)
- Away: 3.62 ERA, 54.2 IP, .237 BAA (10 starts)
I think the Yankees are right to replace him with Lynn, for now, but I think some time away/in the bullpen may be able to give him a new mindset and he can come back and be the capable starter they thought they acquired last July.
