The Yankees lost two starting pitchers, not a season. The significant injuries to Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil for sure opened a pathway toward a first losing season in more than three decades, especially if this is just the beginning of the rotation crumbling physically.
But if the Yankees need encouragement about surviving this level of starting pitching loss to still win the ultimate prize, they need only look to the World Series lost less than five months ago.
The Dodgers put the “r-o-t” in rotation last year. In fact, starting pitching was viewed as advantage Yankees as the Fall Classic began. The Yankees failed to capitalize and — more vitally — as the Dodgers had done all season to compensate for a beat-up rotation, they were just better offensively, defensively and on the bases.
After Juan Soto’s exit to the Mets, the Yankees attempted to reconfigure their roster to be deeper and better overall. That needs to be more than theory now with Cole (Tommy John surgery) lost for the season and Gil (lat) out for no fewer than three months.
