Yankees are 'woefully unprepared' for postseason after Max Fried injury

Yankees are 'woefully unprepared' for postseason after Max Fried injury originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The New York Yankees needed to add at least an arm or two at the trade deadline, but general manager Brian Cashman failed to address the pitching staff. 

Now, Max Fried is headed back to the injured list with a bone bruise in his throwing elbow. 

Fried missed two months earlier this season with an identical injury. What are New York's rotation plans moving forward? 

Will Warren will likely stick in the rotation, and Carlos Rodon will come off the IL to start on Tuesday against the Baltimore Orioles.

But FanSided's Chris Landers wrote Tuesday that Cashman made a big mistake by not adding multiple relievers. 

Fully healthy, the Yankees' rotation would be the best in baseball. Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, and Ryan Weathers are their top five starters. 

"But of course, that rotation doesn't exist in a vacuum. Brian Cashman put the Yankees in a position where they had to be overly reliant on their starting pitching depth to make a deep postseason run — not just to buoy an offense that's currently flailing, but to remake a bullpen that got hung out to dry at the trade deadline," Landers wrote. 

It appeared the Yankees planned to move one of Weathers or Warren, or both, to the bullpen when the postseason arrived. Without Fried, both of them are guaranteed to stay put. 

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Ultimately, that could hurt the Yankees despite Weathers performing as one of the best starters in baseball for over a month. 

"But Cashman kept his powder dry, hoping that once Rodon returned and the playoffs rolled around, both Weathers and Warren could transition into relief roles and provide that needed boost," Landers wrote about the Yankees' quiet trade deadline. "That was always a risky strategy, and it looks downright foolish now that Fried's injury has thrown his status into doubt." 

The Yankees are one more injury away from having a serious problem on their hands. There's a world where Weathers is the No. 2 postseason starter if Cole or Rodon lands on the IL. 

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