Eovaldi Burns Yankees Again

I am in no position to make it official, but I'm gonna call it anyway: We can debate which of Brian Cashman's acquisitions was his worst, but his biggest mistake in letting a player go was Nathan Eovaldi.

On December 19, 2014, Cashman got Eovaldi, Domingo Germán and Garrett Jones in a trade with the Miami Marlins, for David Phelps and Martín Prado. Based solely on Eovaldi's 2015 season and Germán's 2019 season, it can be argued that this was one of Cashman's best deals.

Eovaldi went 14-3, including an 8-0 stretch, in 2015, before developing elbow inflammation and getting shut down. The Yankees lost the American League Wild Card game to the Houston Astros, whom, it can now be presumed, were already cheating. (Don't tell me the game was at Yankee Stadium: Like the Red Sox, the Astros have forfeited any presumption of innocence.)

In 2016, Eovaldi was 9-8 before he was shut down due to another injury, which required Tommy John surgery. The Yankees did not make the Playoffs. Eovaldi was set to miss the entire 2017 season. So, on November 23, 2016, Cashman released him. He would be 28 on Opening Day 2018, and Cashman probably figured he was done.

He wasn't. He was picked up by the Tampa Bay Rays, and in midseason, they traded him to the Boston Red Sox. He turned out to be key in their winning the 2018 World Series, including beating the Yankees in Game 3 of the AL Division Series. If the Yankees had had Eovaldi to start Game 1, instead of J.A. Happ, it could have been a very different result.

Eovaldi was hurt again in 2019, and the Red Sox made him their closer. They didn't make the Playoffs. The Yankees did. Imagine having Eovaldi in the bullpen in the 2019 ALCS against the cheating Astros. It could have been a very different result.

He got hurt again in 2020. But, again, the Yankees could have used him in the Playoffs. In 2021, he was able to pitch a full season. The Yankees lost the Wild Card Game to the Red Sox. Had he been on the Yankees instead, yet again, it could have been a very different result. That could also have been true for the injury-riddled Yankee rotation of 2022.

Think about that for a moment. Let's presume that having Eovaldi would have gotten the Yankees at least one more round every season. Without even counting 2017, when he wasn't available for anybody, it would have meant, at the least: The ALCS in 2018, the Pennant in 2019, the ALCS in 2020, the ALDS in 2021, and the Pennant in 2022 over the cheating Astros.

(Yes, I'm going to keep calling them "the cheating Astros." What they've already done means that I have more evidence of their guilt, before that and after that, than you have of their innocence.)

I'm not saying the Yankees would have beaten the Astros in the '18 ALCS, the Washington Nationals in the '19 Series, the Tampa Bay Rays in the '20 ALCS or the '21 ALDS, or the Philadelphia Phillies in the '22 Series. None of that would have been guaranteed had we gotten that far. But even if we had lost all of those, it would have been a huge improvement over what we got, all because Brian Cashman lost faith in a 26-year-old Nathan Eovaldi.

And here we are in 2023, with Eovaldi pitching for the Texas Rangers, while the Yankees are plugging the holes in the rotation caused by the injuries to Luis Severino and Carlos Rodón with Clarke Schmidt and Jhony Brito. And it was Brito who they sent to oppose Eovaldi last night.

Brito pitched pretty well again, going 5 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk, with 5 strikeouts. Nor can the bullpen be blamed: Between them Ron Marinaccio, Ian Hamilton and Wandy Peralta pitched 3 innings, allowing 3 baserunners and no runs.

But the Yankees aren't hitting anybody lately, and they certainly couldn't hit Eovaldi. He gave up singles to Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the 3rd inning, Anthony Rizzo in the 4th, and Willie Calhoun in the 5th. And that was it. That was all the baserunners the Yankees got in a complete-game shutout by a man who should still have been pitching for them.

Rangers 2, Yankees, 0. WP: Eovaldi (3-2). No save. LP: Brito, who really has deserved better than his current won-lost record (2-3).

The series concludes this afternoon. Nestor Cortés starts against Martín Pérez.