What if Andy Pettitte Misses Time?

Written by Greg Fertel | 05 May 2010

_{Photo Credit: VerneBecker}

Marc Carig(among others) is reporting that Andy Pettitte left today's game after the fifth inning with minor stiffness in his left forearm. Apparently, he felt the same stiffness in his start versus the White Sox. He will be heading for an MRI, which I hope comes back negative.

Back in March, Sean discussed the state of the Yankees' rotational depth. The Yankees have been lucky so far, and have not really faced any injury problems in the majors. Who the Yankees will turn to will depend on whether Pettitte is going to miss a start, or head to the disabled list for an extended period of time.

If Pettitte just needs to miss one start, I'm sure the Yankees won't make a roster move or anything. They'll just go with a combination of Sergio Mitre and Alfredo Aceves. If it turns out that Pettitte is going to miss more than just one or two starts, that would present a problem for the Yankees. There are a few options, but I'm not sure how promising any of them are.

First, there are the options currently sitting in the major league bullpen. Along with Mitre and Aceves, the Yankees have Joba Chamberlain as a possibility. Unless Pettitte was going to miss more than a few months, I couldn't see the Yankees really considering Chamberlain. They have already taken lots of heat for "messing him up," and I think they'd be hesitant to transition him back to the rotation.

I'm probably biased because of my frequent clamoring for the Yankees to stick with Joba as a starter, but I think he is probably the best option to start. With Javier Vazquez barely keeping the Yankees in games, the Yankees can't afford to stick another low-ceiling option like Aceves or Mitre into the rotation.

Taking Joba out of the bullpen would certainly weaken the 'pen a bit, but Mark Melancon could probably step in and the Yankees wouldn't suffer too much. I think this would be ideal from a prospect perspective, but also from a team perspective.

Now, the Yankees could also decide to call someone up. The only realistic 40-man options are Ivan Nova and Romulo Sanchez. Before the season began, I ranked Nova slightly ahead of Sanchez. Well, lets just say that hasn't gone too well. Sanchez has gotten off to an awful start in which he has struggled with his control and his strikeout rate has been down. He also has not been generating as many ground balls. All signs are negative on the Romulo front so far.

Nova has been the opposite. His strikeout rate is way up, his walk rate is slightly down, and his ground ball rate is way up. Nova has certainly distanced himself from Sanchez in 2010. Because of this, if the Yankees need a starter from Triple-A, it would make sense for the Yanks to go with Nova. Either way, I'm sure we'll see him at some point this season.

As you can see, the Yankees do have a few options. The quality of these options is debatable, though. I've never been a big Nova fan, and one strong month isn't going to change that(he also had a strong april last year). Beyond Joba, the other options probably won't be too much better than replacement level. Hopefully, nothing is wrong with Pettitte and I'm just wasting my time thinking about this. If not, though, the Yankees' hand is not going to be a strong one.