COULD JHONY BRITO BE THE YANKEES FIFTH STARTER?

When I heard that the Yankee recalled Jhony Brito from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre I was so pumped. I get why they sent him down, to an extent. He has options, they didn't need a fifth starter for a few days and as the Yankees deal with injuries, everyone gets shuffled. But Brito has shown the Yankees that he is the real deal, unlike Clarke Schmidt whose performance over his last two outings were terrible. Schmidt doesn't have it—not just based on this season, but on multiple opportunities to see him in games over the last couple of seasons. Brito is gritty, he showed us he could dig deep with his pitches, and he belongs in the starting rotation.

"Brito delivered five scoreless innings during his MLB debut last Sunday. The 25-year-old spent most of last season at Triple-A and had a 3.31 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 53:24 K:BB across 70.2 innings. Josh Donaldson (hamstring) and Jonathan Loaisiga (elbow) were placed on the injured list," reported CBS Sports. Making room for Brito to make his second debut in Orioles Park on Saturday. 

And in Baltimore, Brito gave the Yankees five quality innings, mixing pitches even when he didn't have his fastball command. The YES commentators had nothing but praise for the Yankee rookie—highlighting his poise, his guts and yes, his grit. 

Almost mirroring his debut outing, Brito remained focused and calm on the mound against batter after batter. He is just the kind of guy this team needs as their fifth starter. “He kept pounding the strike zone,” Boone said. “It was more of what we’ve seen. He was very at ease out there, very comfortable. It’s just a really good performance, and an important performance for us when we needed a little bit of length,” reported MLB.com following his win against the Giants last week. Boone had similar praise for his young pitcher after he picked up his second win, this time a 4-1 win over the Orioles. 

With guys like Luis Severino (15-day IL), Carlos Rodon (15-day IL and is expected to throw a live batting practice session on Monday), Jonathan Loaisiga (15-day IL), Lou Trivino (10-day IL) and Tommy Kahnle (60-day IL) all unavailable, Brito brings hope and possibility back into the pitching staff. 

The Yankees can't only win on days when Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes pitch. They need more from their starting and closing rotations and that more very much might be gritty 25-year-old Jhony Brito. And why not him? If you can have rookie shortstop with no major league regular season experience in your starting lineup, why can't you have a pitcher facing the same new opportunity? If the Yankees are going to compete for a championship in 2023, they have to be able to pivot. This is one such chance to do just that. Let's get gritty and let the kid stay. He is earned his spot. 

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof