SARASOTA, Fla. — The Yankees’ fifth starter spot is CC Sabathia’s to lose.
Of course, Joe Girardi won’t admit that because Ivan Nova and Sabathia each have one spring training start remaining.
Yet, anybody paying attention to Nova’s horrific outing Friday at Ed Smith Stadium against the Orioles understands Nova failed to match Sabathia’s solid performance Thursday night versus the Rays in Tampa.
Combine Sabathia’s outing Thursday with his impressive five-game finish to last season (when he went 2-1 with a 2.17 ERA) and Nova getting spanked by the O’s, and it’s easy to see Sabathia in the rotation and Nova opening the season in the bullpen as a long reliever.
“I didn’t help myself today,’’ Nova said after the Yankees lost, 11-10, in 10 innings. “We will see what happens.’’
Not only was Nova a mess pitching, he balked when he failed to step off the rubber when Mark Trumbo broke for second in the fourth. When the heavy-legged Pedro Alvarez did the same in the fifth, Nova ignored him even though Alvarez would have been an easy out at second. In the fifth, Nova was slow to cover first base on a ground ball to the right side.
In 4 2/3 innings, the right-hander gave up six runs (five earned) and five hits. Three of the hits were homers, though, to be fair, J.J. Hardy’s home run in the fourth inning was helped by a strong breeze blowing out to left. Trumbo and Caleb Joseph homered without wind aid.
“We are still evaluating and will evaluate all the way through,’’ Girardi said of the competition between Sabathia and Nova. “That’s the only fair way to do it.’’
Nova’s seven relief appearances in 110 regular-season games are seven more than belong to Sabathia, who has never worked out of the bullpen in 452 regular-season tilts. And while Nova as a long reliever isn’t ideal, that appears to be where he lands if neither he nor Sabathia develop a medical issue in their final starts.
“I am not thinking about the bullpen yet,’’ said Nova, whose first three spring outings were solid before brutal efforts the last two times out. “I have one more start.’’
Because Sabathia is a clubhouse leader and the only starter who has worked a pennant race, sentiment is impossible to push aside. Even when he left the team and checked into a rehab facility to fight a drinking problem on the eve of the playoffs last year, nobody bad-0mouthed Sabathia.
“This is a hard decision, and CC has meant so much to this club,” Girardi said. “Nova has been here. It’s something that has to be well-thought out. We have to make decision and as I said before, [when] the decision is made, it’s not a permanent decision. I have the utmost respect for what CC has done in his career and what he has done for us. So this is a tough decision.
“It’s probably the biggest story in camp right now. That’s probably why there is a lot being made of it because of who CC is and what he has done in this game and what he has meant to the Yankees. We don’t win a World Series without CC. We don’t get to all those playoffs without CC. CC led us in innings last year. This is a good man that comes to work every day and is well respected. Always competes, a fierce competitor. He’s meant a lot to this organization.’’
Additional reporting by Kevin Kernan