CHICAGO -- New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman likes to talk in the kind of terms gamblers can understand. During spring training, he described Adam Warren as "the Secretariat" of a four-man race for the No. 5 starter's job, and on Friday, he described his decision to forgo making a trade-deadline deal for an established starter of the caliber of David Price or Cole Hamels as "doubling down" on the young arms in his farm system.
If so, the GM's first hand in this high-stakes game was a bust, because Bryan Mitchell's start against the Chicago White Sox on Saturday night turned out about as well as doubling down on a pair of 6s, a move any grandma can tell you is not a winning strategy in blackjack.
In fairness, Cashman is really about to sink all his chips into Luis Severino, the highly touted 21-year-old right-hander who will make his big-league debut on Wednesday against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. Mitchell, who lost out to Warren in that training camp horse race, was really an extra part here, a spot starter used to give everyone in Yankees manager Joe Girardi's fraying rotation an extra day of rest.
Although Mitchell said he thought he had made "a pretty good case" for remaining in the rotation with his four-plus innings in which he allowed seven hits and four earned runs, the manager wouldn't even commit to the possibility of giving him another shot.
"You have the rotation for the next three days," he said. "We'll have to make some decisions after that."
The likelihood is both Mitchell and Diego Moreno, who followed up his tantalizing 5⅓ no-hit innings on Tuesday with three agonizing, four-run innings on Saturday, will be boarding the Scranton Shuttle on Sunday, which seems to make a run between the Yankees AAA affiliate and wherever the big-league team happens to be playing on a daily basis, picking up used parts and delivering fresh ones.
Sunday's starter, you see, is Ivan Nova, the right-hander who is coming back from Tommy John surgery and left his most recent start on Monday after five innings with what he called a tired arm. So the strong possibility is he, and the Yankees, are going to need some help out of the bullpen if they want to avoid losing a series to the relatively hopeless White Sox, who are 11½ games off the pace in the American League Central.
It reminds you once again that the best laid plans of mice, men and GMs often go awry, and while it is a wonderful concept to hold onto prized young possessions like Severino and Aaron Judge and Greg Bird, sometimes a baseball team needs real help right now.
The Yankees are in no immediate danger, of course -- Saturday's 8-2 loss to the ChiSox cut their lead over the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East to a still-healthy five games -- but since we all love to indulge in that silly little game known as "What Would The Boss Do?" it is safe to imagine that George Steinbrenner III would have invoked the same veiled threat he had used on Cashman and his predecessors countless times over 37 years of ownership: "You better be right."
The pressure on Severino to succeed against the Red Sox in a sold-out Yankee Stadium will be nothing compared to the heat that will come down on the GM, from many quarters, if Severino turns out to be anything less than advertised.
Because rightly or wrongly -- and remember, he better be right -- barring an unexpected waiver wire pickup, the Yankees will play out the final two months of this season with the cards they have rather than the cards they might want.
That means no Price or Hamels or Johnny Cueto or Jeff Samardzija, who was available through the deadline but will start the rubber game for Chicago on Sunday.
And judging by how well the Yankees' offense hit John Danks -- who came in with a career record of 2-3 and an ERA of 5.64 against them -- that could be another tough day at the office.
Mitchell did not pitch well -- he allowed single runs in the first and second innings, was saved by a double play in the first inning and left with none out and two on, both of whom scored, in the fifth -- but he got absolutely no help from his offense, which managed just four hits and one measly run, on a Didi Gregorius sacrifice fly, until Brian McCann's garbage-time home run that made it an 8-2 game with one out in the ninth.
Afterward, the Yankees spoke the language of losers -- IF Avisail Garcia hadn't robbed Gregorius of a three-run homer in that third inning, and IF Mitchell had been able to snag Adam Eaton's leadoff single in the fifth, and IF McCann's grounder had sneaked past second baseman Carlos Sanchez with two on in the sixth, everything might have been different -- and displayed body language to match.
No one can expect a team to score 13 runs a night, as the Yankees did on Friday, but is it not too much to ask of a pitching staff to allow fewer than six runs a night, which the Yankees have averaged over their past five games?
That is what Brian Cashman was hoping to avoid when he doubled down on the young arms in his farm system. Now, he's got to hope that he turns over an ace.
Beltran sore: Girardi said that Carlos Beltran was "sore" after fouling a ball off his foot on Friday night but that the 38-year-old was available for pinch-hitting duty if necessary and was hopeful Beltran would play on Sunday. Beltran, who was limping slightly in the clubhouse, insisted he would be "good to go."