Michael Pineda to return Wednesday; Yankees to use six-man rotation

Yankees manager Joe Girardi confirmed Saturday that the team will roll with a six-man rotation for the time being once Michael Pineda returns on Wednesday.

Pineda doesn’t believe there is any correlation between that game, when he threw a season-high 111 pitches, and his ensuing dip in effectiveness. “But our plans are for him to make another start and then come back and pitch”. That means that Luis Severino will remain as part of the rotation going forward, which is certainly deserved given his performance to date.

“I’m feeling good”, Pineda said before the Yankees faced the Indians.

“We’re hoping [Capuano] comes back, makes another start or two [in the minors] and is built up and we’ll go from there”, Girardi said. “It’s easier to do in September”. I suppose the Yankees could push Pineda’s return to next Friday so that they’d play only three games before adding reinforcements.

“It’s been a lot of days in a row and it’s a day game after a night game”, Girardi said of resting A-Rod, who had homered twice in his previous four games, including a go-ahead grand slam Tuesday against the Twins.

“It’s really pretty incredible considering what it could have been”, Girardi said.

As for McCann, Girardi said he wanted to give the catcher a day out of the crouch. “We’ve just seen a growth in him, and he’s a much more complete pitcher than when we got him, and the development of his split, and ability to mix his other pitches has helped”.

And it appears that from now until the end of the season, barring injury, the Yankees will throw Pineda, Tanaka, CC Sabathia, Nathan Eovaldi and Ivan Nova (in that order), which will allow each player extra rest.