Yankees Pitching Coach Matt Blake Reveals Jonathan Loaisiga Was to Be 'Heavily Involved' as 5th Starter

The coronavirus threat shutting down Major League Baseball has prevented the New York Yankees from answering several key questions about the construction of their roster, especially as it pertains to their starting rotation. Needing to account for the losses of Luis Severino and James Paxton to injury is quite a task, after all.

Pitching coach Matt Blake has fixated on 25-year-old right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga as the guy who will fill a void at the back end of the rotation. He claims that Loaisiga will be "heavily involved" in the fifth starter equation when the time comes.

Jonathan Loaisiga would have been “heavily involved” in the fifth starter equation, Matt Blake says. Wasn’t sure what the usage would have looked like, but they were impressed by how he looked this spring.
— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) April 1, 2020

A former top prospect, Loaisiga has vacillated between starting and relief roles over the last two years, posting a 4.79 ERA while striking out 70 batters in 56.1 combined innings of work.

Loaisiga has a lot of fine-tuning to do before he gets on the track to stardom, but his mid-90s fastball with a high spin rate, and he throws a sharp breaking ball that could morph into a deadly strikeout pitch and help unlock his sky-high potential sooner rather than later.

Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said Jonathan Loaisiga would have factored heavily into the Yankees pitching workload if season started on time — sounds like he had inside track on 5th starter job.
— Brendan Kuty (@BrendanKutyNJ) April 1, 2020

If Yankees baseball does indeed start back up in due time, expect Loaisiga to start eating up some important innings early in the season.