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Could Shane Greene help the Yankees' rotation?

Vidal Nuno and Chase Whitley have struggled in the rotation. Should the Yankees give Shane Greene a chance to help?

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

For the past few weeks, it was thought that CC Sabathia was going to be returning to the rotation after the All-Star break. Knowing that made the struggles of Vidal Nuno and more recently, Chase Whitley, easier to handle, since the Yankees would have only had to deal with a few more starts out of one of the two. Now that Sabathia has been shutdown, the team is back to square one. Michael Pineda is still far from returning, if he does indeed return this season, which leaves the team with a few choices: a) trade for pitchers, b) try to find help in the farm system, or c) keep Nuno and Whitley in the rotation for the rest of the season. Since several writers have discussed the trade possibilities to help the rotation, I'll focus on option B.

At this point, Shane Greene appears to be the most viable option to join the rotation. Before Saturday's game, Joe Girardi said that the Yankees were lacking depth regarding starting pitchers, but that Greene was the guy with "the most starts and the most built up in the minor leagues." Greene has had an up and down season at Triple-A, yet he's shown improvement during his last few outings. He pitched an atrocious game on June 5th, where he got lit up for 8 earned runs over 3 innings, but since then he's allowed just 7 runs through 28 innings, including 0 ER through the last 13 IP. He currently sports a 4.61 ERA, 3.38 FIP, 7.73 K/9, 3.53 BB/9, 0.41 HR/9, and 1.58 WHIP.

As an added bonus, he's already on the 40-man roster. That Greene has improved as of late could mean that he's righted the ship, in which case it might be worth it to see if he could in any way improve upon the jobs that Nuno or Whitley have been doing. Whitley has been the better pitcher of the two, despite the fact that his last three outings have been awful. 17 earned runs through 10.1 IP levels of awful. Though there has been some speculation as to whether Whitley's struggles could be due to fatigue, seeing as how he's already pitched 75.1 innings this year, and the most he had ever pitched during any previous season is around 90. If that is the case, it could be better to move Whitley to the bullpen and leave Nuno in the rotation. Nuno did recently shut out Boston, so he has that going for him.

Do you think that the best solution to the rotation problem is to trade for a pitcher (or two)? In the meantime, do you want more Nuno and Whitley, or would you rather see Greene get a chance?