CHICAGO — It may be true you can never have too much money, but what about possessing a surplus of starting pitching?
The Yankees, a team that started the season with serious question marks beyond ace CC Sabathia, are now dealing with having too many arms in the rotation.
Ivan Nova has manager Joe Girardi scratching his gray hair hard today after the right-hander pitched the Yankees to a 7-2 victory over the White Sox last night in front of 28,088 at U.S. Cellular Field.
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“I don’t know, we will continue to talk,” Girardi said when asked about Nova’s immediate future. “We have a good problem. We have a lot of people throwing well. It was tough to send him down the first time. We need to talk about it.”
Girardi planned to talk with general manager Brian Cashman about what to do with the 24-year-old Nova, who delivered his best performance of the season to help the Yankees extend their winning streak to a season-high seven.
In 7 2/3 innings against basically the same lineup A.J. Burnett was spanked by Wednesday night when staked to a 13-1 lead and didn’t qualify for a victory, Nova allowed a run, six hits, didn’t issue a walk and whiffed a career-high 10.
Because Girardi already has said Phil Hughes starts Tuesday and Burnett goes Wednesday, keeping Nova in the rotation means going to six starters. Though that is an option, it often causes more problems than it creates.
Yet Nova is hard to ignore. When he was sent to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to make room for Hughes coming back from the disabled list in early July, Nova was riding a four-game winning streak and the second-best pitcher on the staff behind Sabathia.
Now, that streak is six, he is 10-4 with a 3.81 ERA and tied with Freddy Garcia for the second most wins among Yankees hurlers.
So what happens?
“I don’t have an answer,” Girardi said. “We don’t have to rush, but eventually we will have to [decide].”
The options are keeping Nova and going with six starters but making sure Sabathia and Burnett pitch on four days’ rest, which they prefer. Or Nova can be sent to the bullpen. Finally, he can be shipped to SWB for the second time when he doesn’t deserve the demotion.
Because the Yankees are carrying 13 pitchers, Girardi is playing with three bench players. If Nova is sent away, the Yankees could promote catcher Jesus Montero from SWB and use him as the DH against lefties.
“I’ll let the manager answer that,” Nova said when asked if he deserves to remain in the rotation.