For Joba Chamberlain’s future development, his 2009 postseason work out of the bullpen — after staying healthy making 31 starts during the regular season — may just have been one of his biggest steps yet. Despite this October success though and despite his season-long presence in the rotation this year, nothing is guaranteed for Joba in 2010.
Joba Chamberlain had two distinct segments to his 2009 campaign. For the first three months — and not coincidentally, through his first 110.2 innings — he was masterful. After 20 starts, Joba was 7-2 with a 3.58 ERA. Although he was walking around 4.1 per 9 innings, his strike out rate was hovering around 7.88 per 9 IP.
After reaching his career innings high, though, Chamberlain’s effectiveness fell off the table. As the Yankees tried to manage Joba’s innings, they tried skipping his start just once and then put him through a limited form of Spring Training during which they attempted to build up his innings per start in preparation for the postseason. By the time Joba was back at 100 pitches, though, the Yankees had decided to stick with a three-man October rotation.
The numbers are ugly. Through August and September, Joba went 2-4 with a 7.52 ERA in 46.2 innings. He walked 26 and struck out 36 while opponents hit .316/.397/.515 against him. In July, before Joba struggled, we wondered if the Yanks should have allowed him more time in the minors, and later on, we learned that the Yankee braintrust wanted to send him down. They didn’t feel as though they had the pitching depth to do so.
Heading into 2010, though, as Joel Sherman writes today, the Yankees are preparing for more Major League-level pitching depth. The team will have CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett fronting the rotation and expects to sign Andy Pettitte for at least one more season. Sherman adds more:
The Yankees? current intentions are to have Chamberlain and Hughes show up in spring training ready to start. They also may ask [Alfredo] Aceves to come prepared to be stretched out. [Ian] Kennedy also is expected to be ready in full, and the Yankees think farmhands Ivan Nova and Zach McAllister are close to major league ready.
In addition, I have been told the Yankees almost certainly will pick up the $1.25 million option on Sergio Mitre and tender a contract to Gaudin, who is not a free agent until after the 2011 season.
None of this news is too ground-breaking, but it gives the Yankees options. More starting pitchers will give the Yanks the flexibility to work with Joba as he matures and grows into a starting pitcher who will throw in the upper 90s as he did out of the pen in the playoffs while attacking the zone. More starters will allow the team to develop Phil Hughes into a confident hurler who can use that great curveball and mid-to-upper 90s fastball to keep hitters guessing.
Right now, Mitre and Gaudin are hardly going to calm the nerves of Yankee fans. The two of them are back-end starters at best, and even though the Yanks, as Sherman reports, believe they have helped Gaudin improve his delivery to generate more downward motion, the team knows what to expect. Perhaps the Yanks will look at John Lackey; perhaps they’ll kick the tires on a Randy Wolf type.
For now, though, the team is content with what they have. After all, this rotation just delivered a World Series championship, and Joba and Phil will only get better. If they don’t, we know the two can excel in the bullpen. But until they fail, they’ll get every opportunity to succeed, and pitching depth simply gives the Yanks a chance to develop them properly without being held hostage at the Major League level. If Joba needs to get sent down next year, if the Yanks’ coaches need to have another sit-down with him next season to refocus him, that depth will allow them to do so. As Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay show, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to the young starter.