Sherman: Hughes To Be Named 5th Starter

Earlier today, we heard from Joel Sherman that Curtis Granderson will be named the Yankees starting center fielder, and now he's reporting that Joe Girardi will name Phil Hughes the fifth starter.

In the next few days, Joe Girardi will make it official that Phil Hughes is the Yankees’ fifth starter.

There are still meetings this week, still final statements that could be offered, still an injury that can change minds and needs. But this was a competition in the faintest of ways. As I reported in early February, the Yankees brass was going to enter spring privately viewing Hughes as the clear fifth starter frontrunner.

The reality is that no one else could win the job. Hughes could only lose it. And strangely, he sealed the win Monday when, of all things, he lost by surrendering three homers, including a walk-off shot by Philadelphia’s Wilson Valdez.

I still think this decision does more harm than good. It basically ends any chance Joba has at returning to the rotation, without ever getting a chance to start without training wheels on, and now Hughes will be stuck with those same training wheels. Why go through all the nonsense last year with the Joba rules if the Yankees were never 100% behind turning Joba into a starter? Unless Joba really doesn't want to start, which could be the case, I think this is a mistake.

What happens if Joba isn't the old Joba out of the pen--something he hasn't been since 2008--and Hughes is what he has been his whole career as a starter, mediocre at best?

To all those who complained about how the Yankees were handling Joba, all they do by making this decision is confirm those complaints. They never should have screwed with him the way they did if they were eventually just going to shove him in the pen without a real chance to prove he can start. And last year, with all the rules and limits, was hardly a fair chance.