The New York Yankees’ performance in the season to the end of May is better than any of us had a right to expect.

Part of that is due to the batting performances of the likes of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, but that is not the whole picture. The pitching arms have been an essential part of the growth.

This is doubly surprising, because the rotation, aside from the ones who are injured and those who have returned from injury, does not look that much stronger, in truth, from last year – especially when one of the subtractions because of injury is last year’s Cy Young award winner who has not yet played in 2024…

Here are the May statistics:

* indicates left-handed pitcher. No * indicates right-handed pitcher

Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP
Yoendrys Gomez rp	0	0	0.00	1	0	1	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	3	0.00
Tommy Kahnle rp	0	0	0.00	3	0	0	0	0	2.2	0	0	0	1	0	0.38
Ron Marinaccio rp	0	0	0.00	3	0	1	0	0	5.0	2	0	0	2	3	0.80
Luis Gil sp	6	0	0.70	6	6	0	0	0	38.2	14	3	3	12	44	0.67
Marcus Stroman sp	3	1	1.67	6	6	0	0	0	37.2	25	8	7	14	23	1.04
Michael Tonkin rp	0	0	1.74	7	0	5	0	0	10.1	6	4	2	5	8	1.06
Clarke Schmidt sp	3	2	1.82	5	5	0	0	0	29.2	19	7	6	7	33	0.88
Luke Weaver rp/sp	0	1	2.25	10	0	2	0	0	16.0	8	4	4	3	22	0.69
Nestor Cortes sp*	2	1	2.48	5	5	0	0	0	29.0	21	9	8	8	30	1.00
Clay Holmes rp	0	1	3.27	11	0	10	0	7	11.0	12	4	4	6	13	1.64
Ian Hamilton rp	0	0	3.38	9	0	2	0	0	8.0	13	3	3	3	9	2.00
Carlos Rodon sp*	5	1	3.67	6	6	0	0	0	34.1	31	15	14	6	32	1.08
Victor Gonzalez rp*	1	0	4.50	7	0	1	0	0	6.0	3	3	3	2	2	0.83
Nick Burdi rp	0	0	5.40	5	0	0	0	0	3.1	3	2	2	4	4	2.10
Dennis Santana rp	1	0	5.40	8	0	3	0	1	8.1	8	5	5	2	6	1.20
Caleb Ferguson rp*	0	0	7.94	10	0	3	0	0	5.2	7	5	5	3	8	1.76
Clayton Andrews*	0	0	27.00	1	0	0	0	0	0.1	1	1	1	0	1	3.00
Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP

Starters

In 2023, the rotation most of the time was Gerrit Cole, Clarke Schmidt, Domingo German, Luis Severino, and Carlos Rodon.

In 2024, the rotation is Nestor Cortes, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil, Marcus Stroman, and Clarke Schmidt.

To summarise. Luis Gil was injured all of last season. Gerrit Cole has been injured all of this season so far. Gil should not be compensation for Cole’s absence, but somehow he is. Domingo German and Luis Severino are gone. Incoming is Marcus Stroman. One shouldn’t replace two. Nestor Cortes was injured a high percentage of last season. Now, he is back, but perhaps he is the weakest of the Yankees’ starters. Carlos Rodon is Carlos Rodon, but he is much better than he was in 2023. Clarke Schmidt has improved on his own performance from last year, but he went on the injured list at the end of May and he will be out a while.

In short, it doesn’t make too much sense that the Yankees’ starting rotation is so much better than it was a year ago.

A further surprise is that the best of the starters (by some distance) in May was Luis Gil. The young rookie, who did not start at all in 2023, made 6 starts in the month and took 6 wins. If that wasn’t enough is ERA for the month, at 0.70, was far ahead of the other starters and was accompanied by a WHIP of 0.67. Astounding! Only time will tell whether he can maintain anything like this and remain fit to play, but the Yankees have any reason to be optimistic.

Second amongst the starters? A close call between Marcus Stroman and Clarke Schmidt… Schmidt as we have mentioned has picked up an injury. He has a right lat strain. But prior to that he made 5 starts in May, taking 3 wins, 2 losses and 1 no-decision. Stroman’s 6 starts brought him 3 wins, 1 loss, and 2 no-decisions. Schmidt’s WHIP of 0.88 was preferable to Stroman’s 1.04 and there is so little to pick between their ERAs.

Cortes despite a couple of weak starts maintained a 2.48 ERA and a WHIP of 1.00. He too had 2 no-decisions, taking 2 wins and one loss.

Carlos Rodon is so much better than last season, but he gave up more hits and more runs than anybody else and his WHIP was higher in May than any of the other starters. Still he has put behind himself the days when he was embarrassing himself. The game in Baltimore on May 2 was by far the worse, but that aside he is growing into his confidence and growing into his role,

Relievers

The team also has its selection of surprises emerging out of the bullpen.

Luke Weaver made a few appearances for the Yankees at the tail-end of last season, and was really only making up the numbers. Somehow, the Yankees have converted him into a reliever, and an outstanding one at that. In 10 games, he has an ERA of 2.25 and a WHIP of 0.69. In 16 innings, he has 22 strikeouts and only 3 walks.

Michael Tonkin is not going to match Weaver for strikeouts, but since joing the Yankees after being claimed off waivers from their neighbours, the New York Mets, he is doing well. After two games in April, he made 7 appearances in May and produced a 1.74 ERA.

Closer, Clay Holmes, was the outstanding Yankees’ relief pitcher, except for one vital blemish. On May 20, the Yankees were facing Seattle at the Stadium. They went into the 9th with a lead of 4-1. Holmes came on to wrap it up and take the save. Instead, he gave up 4 runs, allowing 4 hits and 2 walks. In 7 of his other games in the month, he wrapped up 7 saves. And he excelled himself in the process as he grows year-by-year into the Yankees’ closer role.

Ian Hamilton is into his second season as a transformed pitcher and has become a vital part of the Yankees’ relief corps. He spent the period from the 20th to 28th of May on the injured list, but once more he was solid during the rest of the month. He appearedin 9 games for a 3.38 ERA. It wasn’t his most best month, but he may already have been carrying some traces of the problem which would put him on the injured list.

Victor Gonzalez is doing okay. I can’t say much more than but I certainly can’t say any less. Unlike Dennis Santana and Caleb Ferguson (who we’ll come to in a minute), he has been a very solid addition to the bullpen. His 0.83 WHIP speaks volmes about that.

Santana and Ferguson are struggling. It is unlikely that the Yankees will hang on to them both into the second half of the season (unless there is a sharp improvement in their form). Ferguson’s ERA in May has been 7.94. Santana’s has been 5.40. Santana also has a superior WHIP than his teammate. Between them they have contributed 14 innings.

Nick Burdi was another who spent a considerable time on the injured list. He was on the injured list until the 10th and then within two weeks, right hip inflammation put him out of the reckoning again. When he is available, he can be a useful player to have in the bullpen, but he is too frequently injured.

Thankfully, the Yankees have been able to add the experience of Tommy Kahnle to their roster. Coming back to action on the 22nd of May, he has played in 3 games to the end of this month without conceding a hit and a run.

Ron Marinaccio has had a very uneven time over the second half of 2023 and the opening weeks of 2024. It was surprising that he was called up in April. It was even more surprising when he settled in and gave solid performances. In May, he appeared in 3 games and didn’t concede a run. He gave up 2 hits and 2 walks, but no runs. Therefore, it was surprising when he was sent back to Scranton on the 10th of May. We’ll see what happens next in his chequered journey.

In addition, the Yankees have some good and useful players at the Triple-A level who can be called upon for the occasional workout. The best of these both last season and this has perhaps been Yoendrys Gomez who mad a brief visit to the Bronx and pitched a perfect inning with 3 strikeouts. You would think he can’t be far away from a permanent promotion, but there must be some reason for the Front office’s reluctance.

Clayton Andrews‘ visit to the roster didn’t show nearly as much promise. He got only one man out, giving up a home run for a 3.00 ERA and a 27.00 WHIP.