NEW YORK -- Three days after he was scratched from a start for AAA Scranton, fueling speculation that he would make a spot start against the San Francisco Giants on Friday to give Masahiro Tanaka an extra day of rest, the New York Yankees have recalled right-handed pitcher Chad Green.
But according to manager Joe Girardi, Green is here simply to help out in the bullpen in the event the Yankees need long relief help for CC Sabathia, who starts Thursday afternoon's finale against the Baltimore Orioles. The Yankees sent Nick Goody down to Scranton on Thursday, and Girardi said both Dellin Betances and Anthony Swarzak are unavailable.
"We felt that we needed a right-handed reliever that could either give us distance or give us some shortness,'' said Girardi, who characterized the belief that Green was coming up to make a start "all speculation.''
Asked what the downside would be to starting Green on Friday against Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, a move that would allow Tanaka to make his next two starts on an extra day's rest because of an off-day in the schedule, Girardi said: "Well, then your bullpen is short. Let me try to explain this. People talk about the six-man rotation. The only way you can do a six-man rotation is if you have a 13-man pitching staff. Which I don’t think with our club we’re really equipped to do, because people say, well, you just use a six-man pitching, but you still need four relievers, you still need your seven relievers, so just because you go to a six-man rotation doesn’t mean that you’re going to get more distance. So you can’t really go to a 12-man staff, keep it a 12-man staff, and it creates problems. I don’t think that we’re constructed for a 13-man. And then, OK, then Green, if he started tomorrow, it’s still possible, but I’m just saying all the problems it creates. Then you have to send him down, and then who do you call up that can give you distance? And there’s just a lot of complications to it. And I know that Tanaka has pitched batter this year on the extra day's rest. The other two years it’s been a wash or it’s even been better. So, he only threw 82 pitches. He should be fairly fresh. He's coming off where he had seven days, so right now it’s just hard to do.''
Does that make sense to everyone?
Me neither.
And I, for one, am not entirely convinced that Green isn't starting Friday anyway, provided Girardi doesn't need him in long relief on Thursday. Things change around here literally overnight.
