Right now, Cessa is pitching like his career depends on it. He has been starting games, so he's getting time vs regulars and to this point has been really good. Then again, spring stats in the early going are deceiving and I have said before not to read much into them. I do think he is best served in the pen. As I laid out before, if we use our 4 and 5 starters as noted, we will hit only one good team, so we could get away with 2 of Cessa, Loaisigia or German in the rotation for a short run and still hope our offense pounds the ball to a win. Once everyone comes back, I agree, the path to playing time will be rough for him, but not impossible. Assuming good health, here are the 12-13 pitchers expected on the squad
1. Severino
2. Paxton
3. Tanaka
4. Happ
5. Sabathia
6. Chapman
7. Betances
8. Britton
9. Ottavino
10. Green
11. Holder
12. ??
13. ??
Right now, 12 and 13 are Kahnle and Cessa just due to being out of options. Loaisiga and German would make the team out of ST in the spots for CC and Sevy. With the Yankees offensive depth, we might be able to survive with 12 position players
1. Sanchez
2. Romine
3. Voit/Bird
4. Torres
5. Lemahieu
6. Tulo
7. Andujar
8. Stanton
9. Gardner
10. Hicks
11. Judge
12. ???
This means we likely are going to keep Cessa around. After breaking it down, I think the Yanks are really going to give him a good shot this year. The true test to this roster will be when Didi and Montgomery come back in July. If everyone is healthy (doubtful) then we will have some really difficult decisions that will likely require us jettisoning 2 pitchers to add those guys back in