Photo Credit: Rick Osentoski
In October of 2011, Ivan Nova was the game two starter in the playoffs for the New York Yankees in what was only his first full season in the majors. Nova’s potential appeared to be through the roof, and he seemed like a guy that would be a fixture in the Yankees’ rotation for years to come.
Then came a disastrous 2012 season that was mired with both injuries and inconsistency. Even when he has gone through rough patches over the past year or so, the Yankees have decided to keep throwing him out there every five days. Some people think that’s a good way to help a young pitcher mature and figure out what’s going wrong, but the thing is that Nova has become complacent with his situation.
There are just some athletes that need the pressure of knowing that they’re a not assured of their jobs in order to perform their best. Nova is one of those guys. The Yankees could have put the heat on Nova this year after David Phelps out-performed him in the spring by relegating Nova to bullpen and handing Phelps the 5th starter spot. However, that isn’t what they did. Instead they crowned the loser of the competition the winner because, well, because they believe in him.
Nova is not as bad of a pitcher as he has been over the last 10 months, but he also hasn’t done anything worthy of special treatment from the Yankees’ management. He needs a wake up call, which is exactly what he received in June of his rookie season as he was demoted when Bartolo Colon and Phil Hughes returned from injuries. Nova used his time in Triple-A to work on his slider and reclaimed his role in the rotation by late July. He went on to dominate the rest year going 8-0 with a 3.18 ERA over the last two-plus months.
Nova is currently on the disabled list which means that he has at least two weeks to try and get himself mentally able to pitch when he returns. The Yankees could follow his DL stint with a demotion to the minors so that he can revamp his game and get his much needed reality check. Seeing as Nova has a minor-league option remaining it would be rather easy to send him down for a month or two. This would give him a chance to work on his pitch selection and maybe with proper location of his fastball he wouldn’t continue to lead the league in home runs given up.
Nova has the potential to be a third or even number two starter in the majors. The Yankees absolutely should not give up on the young pitcher and instead give him this necessary break in order to improve his future.
In the short-term, the Yankees could slot David Phelps into the number five spot which he earned in spring training anyway. The production they would receive from Phelps would definitely be an upgrade over what Nova would be giving them right now and it would be for the best of the team to go about things in this way.
Chris Ronca is a New York Yankees writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter; @ChrisRonca.
