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BOSTON — When the Yankees’ rotation suffered a few injuries back in spring training, Michael King pitched himself as a replacement to Aaron Boone.
But with King so dominant in relief and fresh off a stress fracture in his throwing elbow, the suggestion was — excuse the pun — a non-starter.
“He was coming off the repair of the elbow, so he was trying to get into the rhythm of his delivery and feel confident,” pitching coach Matt Blake told the Daily News. “We knew what we had in the bullpen and we had some general guidelines we wanted to kind of hold him to as far as multiple innings, multiple days off, three innings, three days off, that type of stuff. We didn’t necessarily want to put him into the rotation at that point just because we had bodies in the mix and we had names that we felt comfortable with. We didn’t want to necessarily move him away from what we knew he did really well.”
But more injuries left the Yankees’ rotation short-handed again in August, so King — a starter in college and the minors — circled back. This time, with Boone short on options, King received a shot as an extended opener. That has blossomed into a traditional starter’s schedule as he continues to build up.
“He’s obviously run with it,” Blake said Thursday before King totaled 4.2 innings, six hits, one earned run, one walk, eight strikeouts and a season-high 87 pitches in his latest start.
The Yankees lost the game, the first of a doubleheader against the Red Sox, 5-0, but King looked sharp despite some inefficiency. He even pushed to stay in longer when Boone went to pull him from the game. Much like the spring, the skipper didn’t bite.
“I told Boonie regardless if I give up 15 or I’m scoreless, I’m not gonna go down without a fight,” King, sounding like a true starter, said afterward. “He wouldn’t let me. I tried my best. I think I might have had a little hesitation, but didn’t fully get there.”
Michael King’s 7th and 8th Ks. pic.twitter.com/JdKsa9jbTS
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 14, 2023
King has now logged at least four frames in his last four starts, totaling 18.2 innings and three earned runs over that stretch. He has also tallied 26 strikeouts and just two walks over that span.
Most importantly, his body and arm are handling the new role well.
“I’m feeling great,” King said. “It’s nice to be on that routine. That’s the main part of my body recovery that I feel like I missed out of the bullpen. Gotta be up every day, you know? So in the rotation, you can have those days to recover, get a full bullpen in between starts and go out there.”
King added that mixing his pitches has allowed him to have success, but he mentioned that he’s been leaning on his fastball more as a starter.
Blake has been impressed with King’s ability to limit hard contact, control counts and induce whiffs as a starter. Boone, meanwhile, said that King has done a nice job of maintaining his stuff as he goes, and that it’s looked similar to how it did when the right-hander was coming out of the bullpen.
“He’s taken to it well so far,” Blake said. “As he’s built his pitch count, you can see him getting in the flow of the game pretty well. And I think he’s using his whole arsenal well — [to] both righties and lefties — and attacking the zone.
“He’s kind of found a nice rhythm there.”
What initially started as an experiment born out of desperation has now given the Yankees something to seriously consider this offseason and next spring: should King be a full-time starter?
That is the pitcher’s goal, and the Yankees have some uncertainty in their rotation that works in King’s favor as he prepares for a few more starts this season.
In an ideal world, the club will start the 2024 campaign with Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt and Nestor Cortes in the rotation. But injuries hampered Rodón this season, and Cortes has yet to begin a throwing program after reaggravating a rotator cuff strain.
Boone said that Cortes is close to starting his program, while Blake added that, as of now, the southpaw is not expecting surgery.
Even if the aforementioned names are all healthy at the start of next season, the Yankees will still need a fifth starter, as well as depth, with Luis Severino unlikely to return in free agency. Randy Vásquez and Jhony Brito are also internal candidates after arriving in the majors ahead of schedule this year, but King appears to be the preferred choice.
He would also be a cost-effective one for the Yankees, as King is making $1.3 million this season. He is due for a raise in arbitration, but that bump would be nothing compared to the price of high-end external options like Blake Snell, Aaron Nola and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Boone said that King’s 2024 role is “probably technically to be determined, but we all believe he can be a starter.”
“He’s probably, in a lot of ways, confirming that in what we’re seeing as he’s continued to build up here these last few weeks,” the manager continued. “Michael’s in a really good spot in that he’s proven himself at this level, obviously, out of the bullpen. But I think he’s also showing us now that — I definitely believe he could be a successful starter. So we’ll see. We’ll see where the next few weeks take us. We’ll see where the winter takes us and how we look going into next season, but right now, he’s putting himself in that starter mix.”
Blake endorsed that sentiment as well, but he also noted that King’s versatility could be “huge” for the Yankees next year.
Even if King were to begin the season in the bullpen, the team now knows that he can handle a starter’s workload in an effective manner at the major league level. If injuries hurt the Yankees again in 2024, King’s experience in the rotation will come in handy.
With that said, he expects to fight for a rotation job next spring.
“I’m more just taking it day-by-day now,” King said, “but in this offseason, I think I’ll definitely build up and be ready to come in to compete for a starting role.”
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Gary Phillips
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