SARASOTA – A staff anchored by Roger Clemens and supported by David Cone is the envy of most major league managers. Yet, with the start of the season less than a week away, the Yankees have question marks surrounding their arms.
Andy Pettitte, considered the No. 2 starter, is headed for the DL. Hideki Irabu, No. 5 in the pecking order, is pitching for his spot in the rotation tomorrow against the Indians at Legends Field, one day after Ramiro Mendoza tries to wrestle Irabu’s spot away.
And if you go by spring-training numbers, by no means a fool-proof method of evaluation, who knows what to expect from Orlando ”El Duque” Hernandez as he is about to start his first full major league season.
Pettitte, who pulled himself from a start on March 7 when he felt stiffness, is the only lefty in the rotation. He threw 48 pitches in a 10-minute bullpen workout yesterday and reported no problems. Yet, when the Yankees split Tampa following Irabu’s audition tomorrow, Pettitte will be left behind and likely placed on the 15-day DL.
”It seems pretty inevitable since I haven’t pitched since the first week,” Pettitte said of his initial stay on the shelf.
Pettitte worked two innings in a Triple-A game Sunday. He will pitch Friday in another minor league game and repeat the exercise a week from today. After that, Pettitte wants to be on a plane to New York.
”They don’t want to rush it and I understand that,” Pettitte explained. ”I don’t want to rush either, but I feel good and I feel healthy. I don’t want to be camped out down here.”
A player placed on the DL to start the season can be back 10 days later. So the first date Pettitte would be eligible to come back would be April 10, though the Yankees probably won’t need a fifth starter until April 17.
”That’s what I am definitely thinking,” Pettitte said when asked about rejoining the club for the first weekend of the season. ”To me, it’s not a matter of how I am pitching, it’s a matter of getting my pitch count up. That’s the way I am looking at it and I know they are looking at it a little differently.”
Mel Stottlemyre liked what he saw yesterday when Pettitte mixed in a few cut fastballs; his signature pitch he said he wasn’t going to break out until he worked a big league game that counted. Still, Stottlemyre is taking the cautious approach.
”It’s not definite, but it’s a pretty good chance,” Stottlemyre said of Pettitte opening the year on the DL. ”He needs more game work. How much, I don’t know. We will go by what we see.”
As for the Mendoza-Irabu battle, Mendoza was supposed to set the pace yesterday against the Reds at Ed Smith Stadium but was a late scratch due to a stomach flu. He will try again today against the Blue Jays in Dunedin. If that can’t be handled, Stottlemyre said Mendoza will work in a minor league game tomorrow.
Invaluable to the Yankees because he can start or relieve, Mendoza broke into a wide grin when asked his take on competing for a slot in the rotation.
”I like to start,” said the sinker-ball specialist who has been hurt pitching up in the strike zone this spring. In five games, he is 0-0 with a 5.68 ERA. ”If it’s the bullpen, I will do my job.”
According to Stottlemyre, it’s Irabu’s job to lose. And if he does give way to Mendoza, Irabu can expect to sit in the bullpen and think about his dilemma cast in the role of long reliever.
”No question about it,” interim manager Don Zimmer said when asked if the Yankees were a better team with Irabu working every fifth day and Mendoza in the pen. ”That’s why he was penciled in to be one of the four starters until Pettitte came back.”
When Zimmer was asked how he thinks Irabu will respond to the challenge, he shrugged his shoulders. ”I am sure Irabu has been told everything you can tell a man,” Zimmer said. ”He has been told everything we would like for him to do. Most of it’s up to him.”
