Silverman: Disastrous Marmol Has No Place On Yankees
By Steve Silverman
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New York, NY (WFAN) - The Yankees are dealing from a position of strength.
The devastating knee injury suffered by Mariano Rivera will almost certainly end the future Hall of Famer's season. While he says he will try to mount a comeback so his career doesn't end on the warning track in Kansas City, such a return has to be viewed as a longshot given Rivera's age and the severity of the injury (torn ACL and meniscus). Impossible? No. Unlikely? Yes.
The key move now is up to Brian Cashman. When a team loses an elite player, it's hard not to panic. But baseball general managers are like sharks who smell blood. Opposing general managers are like hunting dogs because they can sniff out desperation. They will offer sympathy, understanding and the mirage of relief. And then they will rob you blind.
If Cashman goes against his better judgment and starts to look for a closer, he is only going to hurt his team. Obviously, he can't find another Rivera on any other major league roster because that player just does not exist. The dangerous thought that may enter Cashman's mind – no matter what he says on the record – is that he can go find someone who pitching coach Larry Rothschild can turn into a legitimate closer. Perhaps even someone that Rothschild has worked with in the past.
That pitcher might be Carlos Marmol of the Chicago Cubs. On the surface, the Cubs would appear to be a willing trading partner with the Yankees. They are a National League team and they are going nowhere. They hired Theo Epstein to do a complete rebuilding job and if all goes well, the Cubs may be looking at a playoff spot by the 2014 season. In the meantime, they have Marmol on the roster. Marmol has fallen on hard times because his fastball has lost a few miles per hour and his once devastating slider has lost its bite.
Marmol was an All-Star in 2008 and All-Star caliber in 2010 when he had 38 saves and finished a league-high 70 games while pitching 77.2 innings. He had 34 saves in 2011, but he was not the same pitcher he had been. Rothschild was the Cubs' pitching coach from 2002 through 2010 and he had Marmol on his staff when he was one of the most successful relievers in the National League. Without Rothschild, Marmol appears to have lost his way.
Cashman had better have a long conversation with Rothschild before he comes close to pulling the trigger on a trade for Marmol. It may seem logical that if Marmol was working with his old mentor, he would once again regain the form he had in his best seasons. But here's the problem: Marmol has awful mechanics. He violates every principle of good pitching form imaginable. He does use his body or legs in an optimum way and his arm has started to wear out.
While opposing pitching coaches are hesitant to criticize other team's pitchers, many cringe when breaking down tape of Marmol's delivery. When Rothschild was with the Cubs, he knew that Marmol had remarkable physical ability. He also quickly came to the conclusion that trying to teach the proper mechanics to a cement head like Marmol was a complete waste of his time. If Marmol had learned the proper fundamentals, he might have a chance to challenge the best relievers in the game. Instead, he appears headed for the scrap heap. Cubs manager Dale Sveum removed him from the team's closer role and they would only be too happy to move him to another team.
The Yankees don't have to make a move for Rothschild's former closer. They have Rafael Soriano and David Robertson in the 1 and 1A slots to try to fill the position. Both are much better options than Marmol.
No Yankee player, coach, manager or fan can realistically think that that either one will be able to mimic Rivera. But in this case, doing nothing is a much better option for Cashman than making a panic move and bringing in Marmol. Even if he felt a bit more comfortable working with Rothschild again, he would no longer be pitching against the weak sisters in the National League. There is far more muscle in the American League lineups and bringing over Marmol would be like asking a convicted arsonist to head the fire department.
Advice to Cashman: Keep your hands in your pockets and don't make any calls to the 312 area code. You'll only regret it if you do.
