When Joba Chamberlain was promoted to the majors in August of 2007, he brought with him a set of constraints on how often and how much he would be allowed to pitch. But now that the 24 year old is entering his fourth big league season, it appears the Yankees are finally ready to let Joba leave his infamous rules behind.
"He's not going to have any restrictions, so Joe [Girardi] and I are not going to have to go into the game thinking, 'Oh, he's got 85 pitches or six innings or whatever comes first,’" pitching coach Dave Eiland told the New York Daily News. "We don't have to game plan it out. The kid gloves are off, and he's just going to go out and pitch and he knows that and he's going to come in and be all geared up to win [the No. 5 starter’s] job, as are the other guys. Competition should bring out the best in everyone."
Even if the "Joba rules" are a thing of the past, Chamberlain’s role on the 2010 Yankees is uncertain.
General manager Brian Cashman acquired righty Javier Vazquez from the Atlanta Braves earlier this offseason, adding depth to the pinstripes’ rotation, which will feature CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Vazquez and Andy Pettitte. But the No. 5 job is up for grabs and Joba — who went 9-6 with a 4.75 ERA in 32 games (31 starts) last year — is among the leading candidates.
Chamberlain’s main competition will come from 23-year-old Phil Hughes, who was brilliant as a reliever but struggled as a starter in 2009. A darkhorse for the role is 26-year-old Chad Gaudin — brought in from the San Diego Padres last summer — who is more of a sure thing but has far less upside than the homegrown duo.
When asked to name a favorite in one of the hottest position battles that will take place during spring training, Eiland declined, noting the value of letting the candidates feed off each other to determine which of them is most deserving.
But Chamberlain’s inconsistent performance last season — particularly after the All-Star break, when Girardi began toying with his innings to preserve his arm for the playoffs — is cause for some concern. So is his diminishing fastball velocity, which plunged from an average of 95 miles per hour in 2008 to a much more hittable 92.5 in 2009. That, too, could potentially be attributed to Chamberlain’s erratic pitching schedule, but it should be a consideration for Eiland, Girardi and Cashman nonetheless.
If Chamberlain loses the battle to Hughes or Gaudin, he would almost certainly be relegated to the major league bullpen, where he enjoyed tremendous success in both 2007 and 2008. In 60 career innings as a reliever, Chamberlain has allowed just 39 hits, while walking 20 and whiffing 79. But he also offers significantly more value and potential as a starter, so the Yankees have been and should still be willing to endure his growing pains.
Moreover, since Hughes was limited to only 86 innings last season and pitched mostly out of the bullpen, moving him back into the rotation would also require some careful oversight by Eiland and Girardi. At 23, Hughes can still be considered among the elite pitching prospects in baseball, yet — like Chamberlain — the early part of his career has been marred by the Yankees’ indecision about his role.
Barring an injury, it appears that the Yankees’ most recent blue-chip pitchers will be pitted against each other in Grapefruit League action, and the winner of the battle will likely be the first to earn a stable role on their staff.
