Freddy Garcia Makes New York Yankees Starting Rotation

Freddy Garcia and Ivan Nova have made the New York Yankees starting rotation coming out of spring training. It had been a battle for most of camp, with Bartolo Colon considered as one of the possibilities as well. It seems that Colon will be coming off the bench, and that the Yankees saw what they liked in Garcia and Nova in order to make this announcement.

According to MLB.com, Nova will be the No. 4 starter and Garcia will be No. 5 in the Yankees rotation. The decision is actually a bit of a surprise after Colon looked much better than Garcia during spring training. In four starts for each, Garcia finished with a 5.93 ERA in 13 2/3 innings, while Colon finished with a 2.40 ERA in 15 innings. It would seem that Colon was the obvious choice, but because he took the 2010 season off, it seems that he was placed at a disadvantage coming into camp.

Nova and Garcia will now follow CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Phil Hughes for the Yankees this year. That isn't what many would call a stable starting rotation, but all of these pitchers have the potential to be good in 2011. That potential is what the organization is really banking on, because they are going to have to do a lot in order to keep up with the Boston Red Sox. Boston made several key acquisitions this offseason that included trading for Adrien Gonzalez and signing free agent Carl Crawford away from the Tampa Bay Rays.

With no major signings in the rotation or on offense, the Yankees didn't make the splash that most analysts felt they would make this offseason. They did acquire a nice set-up man in Rafael Soriano, potentially giving them a great closer-in-waiting should Mariano Rivera decide to walk away from the game soon. It could put some undue pressure on Soriano as the only major free agent signing, but more attention will be focuses on the Yankees staff than on anything else.

Prepare for an April packed with "SportsCenter," "Baseball Tonight," and just about every other baseball related show debated how far the Yankees rotation is going to take them. This will include deep analysis of every start each one of them makes, and whether Sabathia is going to be forced to carry more than his share of the load again in 2011. If that is the case, then the Yankees might not even make it to the playoffs in a year where the league just got deeper.

Opening Day for the Yankees will be against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, March 31 with Sabathia taking the mound first.

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