Around the Empire: Yankees news - 2/18/22

FanGraphs | Jay Jaffe: It’s been a bad start to spring training for the Yankee rotation with news that Frankie Montas will undergo surgery and Nestor Cortes will require extra time to overcome a bum hamstring (though the latter did throw a bullpen yesterday). Much was made of the strength of the pitching staff over the course of the offseason, where it was projected to be the game’s best, but relying on Clarke Schmidt and Domingo Germán take some bites out of that potential. Montas, for example, is pegged by Depth Charts for just 0.3 fWAR over the campaign.

Yahoo! Sports | Andy Martino: Speaking of the rotation, new Yankee Carlos Rodón has been the third-best pitcher in baseball by fWAR over the past two seasons, doing so in a little bit of an unconventional style. Unlike Gerrit Cole or Max Scherzer, who mix in four or five different pitches into their repertoires, Carlos really only features two offerings, with his fastball-slider pairing making up about 94 percent of his chucks. The lefty has considered widening his offering, and the Yankees are well known for their pitch design process, but what Rodón’s doing has certainly been working.

New York Post | Greg Joyce: Every year, we see a player or two step up and become an impact member of the roster, and Ron Marinaccio wants to be that guy this year. After a strong debut campaign last season, he ended up with a stress reaction in his shin, leaving him on the bench for the Yankees’ playoff exit. Entering camp and with longtime mainstays Chad Green, Aroldis Chapman, and Zack Britton gone from the bullpen (not to mention Lucas Luetge and Miguel Castro), Marinaccio has a great opportunity to build off of last year’s success and ultimately be a weapon for an expected postseason run.