Injuries leave Yankees rotation with question marks after All-Star break

ATLANTA – Fresh off a four-day All-Star break, the Yankees’ rotation to begin the second half has become a popular GIF brought to life.

The dog sitting at a table, saying, “This is fine,” with flames all around him?

That was the state of the Yankees’ pitching plans as of Friday.

It may end up being fine, but in the interim, the Yankees opened a series against the Braves on Friday with a bullpen game while crossing their fingers that Max Fried and Cam Schlittler will both be able to pitch in their next series against the Blue Jays.

Originally, once Fried decided not to pitch in the All-Star Game, he was likely going to start Friday against his old teammates in his first trip back to Truist Park.

But then he left last Saturday’s start with a blister on his left index finger.

The left-hander has seen considerable improvements since then, he said Friday, but the Yankees wanted to give him a few extra days to make sure it is fully healed so it won’t pop up again.

So then Schlittler became the Yankees’ likely starter on Friday, until he experienced “upper-arm soreness” earlier this week, manager Aaron Boone said.

The Yankees sent the rookie for an MRI and put him through tests, all of which came back clean.

But it was enough to push him back a few days.

Like Fried, they hope to have him pitch against the Blue Jays in the series that runs Monday through Wednesday.

Since the Yankees still wanted Will Warren to pitch on his sixth day Saturday, Marcus Stroman had already thrown a bullpen in preparation for his Sunday start and Carlos Rodón just pitched an inning in Tuesday’s All-Star Game (lining him up to start Monday), leaving them starting reliever Ian Hamilton on Friday night.

“Hoping that with Cam and Max, it’s just short-term things where we move them in the rotation and hopefully fine moving forward,” Boone said. “We should be in a situation after [Friday] where hopefully our five guys are making their turns.”

Even if that proves to be the case, the tenuous state of the rotation this week only emphasizes the need for the Yankees to add a starter by the July 31 trade deadline.

Luis Gil is on his way back from a lat strain, making a second rehab start Friday night and likely needing one or two more after that before he returns, but Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt are not walking through that door because of Tommy John surgery.

Schlittler had made his MLB debut last Wednesday in place of Schmidt, lighting up the radar gun while throwing 5 1/3 innings and giving up three runs in a win over the Mariners.

Boone said he recovered from that without issue before the upper-arm discomfort popped up on Tuesday.

“We think he’s fine,” Boone said. “He should be good to go. But it forced us to push him back. So then we’re in a little bit of a tough spot. I’m hoping to slot him back in in the Toronto series.”

For Fried, not being able to pitch this weekend was a disappointing development after spending the first eight years of his big league career here.

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“It’s something I was looking forward to,” he said. “Missing that opportunity to be able to pitch was definitely frustrating, but we’ve got the rest of the season to worry about. I want to make sure I’m ready to go and this doesn’t keep lingering.”

In that regard, Fried said the blister was “really good” and “progressing well.” He never stopped playing catch since his last start on Saturday, but had yet to throw a bullpen, which will be the next box to check off.

“Mostly it’s trying to make sure the skin heals, first and foremost,” Fried said. “Trying to get it to be looking like a normal finger. On top of that, just trying to make sure the skin is a little bit calloused, a little bit tougher rather than just being soft.

“Especially with it being hot and my skin getting a little softer, it’s more susceptible to ripping. Just trying to stay on top of that and keeping the skin hard and calloused.”