VIDEO: Jonathan Loaisiga Dominates Boston to Continue Monster Spring But Usage Indicates He Won't Be 5th Starter

The New York Yankees have an absolute weapon on their hands in Jonathan Loaisiga, who's proving his worth once more every time he steps onto the field in short stints this Spring. Loaisiga continued his set of scoreless outings on Tuesday, blowing away four Red Sox in two shutout frames.

That moves his total stats for the preseason to five shutout innings, nine Ks, and plenty of heads turned.

All things considered, you'd have to imagine he's leading the race for the vacant fifth starter role, right? On the 40-man, major league experience, dominating with abandon...

But when you look a bit closer, Loaisiga isn't typically being brought in to face the opponent's top hitters early in the game. Once more on Tuesday, he was trusted to get his work done in the eighth and ninth, against eighth- and ninth-stringers. So what gives? Do the Yanks just want to keep his stuff a secret to the league's elite? Or are they grooming someone else to leap off a minor-league roster and take the slot?

Namely...Clarke Schmidt?

Schmidt, every Yankee fan's current hero with a bender for the ages, was taken deep by Rafael Devers in two strong innings of work on Tuesday -- specifically, the third and fourth innings.

It would take plenty of roster manipulation for the Yanks to get Schmidt on the Opening Day 26-man, but it certainly seems like the team is setting him up for the role, in a vacuum.