We all know the legend about the way the Yankees have hit, all the way back to Babe Ruth. The Bronx Bombers are a permanent part of the language of baseball, and so is Murderers' Row because of the 1927 Yankees -- one of the most storied Yankees teams of them all. The 2026 Yankees can still hit, of course, and that story begins and sometimes ends with Aaron Judge, the new Babe at Yankee Stadium. But maybe, just maybe, this time the Murderers' Row for the Yankees can turn out to be their starting pitching.
Because when all their starters are healthy, and if they can stay healthy, it may turn out that just the top of this rotation -- Gerrit Cole, Cam Schlittler, Max Fried, Carlos Rodón -- might be the best in the game, which means even better than what the Dodgers throw at everybody.
Cole, who underwent Tommy John surgery last year, is back on a mound in the Minor Leagues. Rodón is still expected to be back with the big club before Cole. But even without them, here are the ERAs for the best four in their current rotation:
Schlittler: 1.95
Will Warren: 2.49
Fried: 2.97
Ryan Weathers: 3.18
With Kansas City in town at Yankee Stadium over the weekend, the Yankees' bats very much came live. But the headline of the Yankees’ early season -- even with Judge still hitting home runs -- has been their starting pitching. So many times since 2009, the last time they won the World Series, the team has simply not had enough starting pitching in the end. Maybe this season will be different, especially with help from Cole and Rodón on the way.
Right out of the gate, the 5-1 record with which the Yankees began this season included their starters having a combined ERA of 0.53. They gave up just three runs, total, in those six games -- a stretch unlike any to start a season since the 1942 Cardinals.
“What a week of pitching,” Aaron Boone said at the time.
It is a week that, with only a handful of exceptions, had turned into a month. The Yankees only came out of this past weekend with a record of 13-9, a half-game in front of the Rays, who swept them the previous weekend in St. Petersburg. That is mainly because they haven’t come close -- at least so far -- to being the kind of Bronx Bombers powerhouse they were on offense a year ago and because of spotty relief pitching.
But the kind of starting pitching they have gotten has reminded their fans of something: That when the Yankees have been truly great in the past, it is because they have had great starting pitching. All the way back in ’78, when they were on their way to winning a second World Series in a row -- coming from 14 1/2 games behind the Red Sox to do that -- they really built that comeback on starting pitching. Ron Guidry was the best pitcher on the planet that year with a record of 25-3. Ed Figueroa finished with a record of 20-9. And down the stretch that year, Catfish Hunter magically turned back into the total star he had been with the A’s, going 9-2 in his final 12 starts.
That Yankees team -- because of the comeback -- became one of the most famous they’ve ever had. Just not as famous as the 1998 Yankees, the greatest Yankees team of them all at 114-48 -- certainly in a 162-game season (the ’27 Yankees were 110-44).
Here was the Yankees' starting rotation that year:
David Cone, 20-7
David Wells, 18-4
Andy Pettitte, 16-11
Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez, 12-4
Hideki Irabu, 13-9
Five years later, when the Yankees were back in the World Series only to be upset by the Marlins, here was their rotation:
Roger Clemens, 17-9
Mike Mussina, 17-8
Pettitte, 21-8
Wells, 15-7
When the Yankees last won the World Series in ’09, they really only had three top starters: CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Pettitte. But behind them, Joba Chamberlain won nine games and Phil Hughes won eight.
This ’26 rotation absolutely has the potential to be better than that if Cole comes all the way back from his surgery, and Rodón finds his own form after a season when he won 18 games for the ’25 Yankees and finished with an ERA of 3.09. Behind Cole, Fried, Schlittler and Rodón are young arms like Warren and Weathers. Clarke Schmidt himself was an up-and-comer for Boone last season before undergoing elbow surgery of his own. Schmidt is also expected to be back -- and healthy again -- by the summer.
Judge has described the team’s starting pitching, even without Cole and Rodón, as being the “big difference-maker” in the early going. Yankees fans can only imagine what it might look like later. Judge is still the real difference-maker for the Yankees, without question. Sometimes he is a Murderers' Row all by himself. But this definitely has the chance to be the best -- and most formidable -- starting pitching they’ve had in more than 20 years. And the best in the 17 years since they last won it all.