It was a moment that suggested a sea change in how winning teams are formed, both in the majors and in the American League East.
On Saturday, Phil Hughes – at 24 years, 107 days – became the youngest Yankees pitcher to start a playoff game since 23-year-old Andy Pettitte in 1995. Hughes was brilliant, tossing seven shutout innings, in the process becoming the youngest New York starter to win a playoff game since 22-year-old Dave Righetti won an ALCS clincher in 1981.
There was a reason for the gap, and there is a reason why it is over. Young pitchers used to be the currency that the Yankees and other teams competing for the postseason used to acquire veterans to anchor their postseason rotations. Indeed, Hughes felt that his time in the Yankees system was perpetually uncertain.
There was, of course, the conversation about whether he might go to the Twins as part of a package for Johan Santana after the 2007 season. But, Hughes noted last week, he did not have TV or internet during those conversations because his family home was being remodeled, and so he was not consumed with the idea that he might be dealt.
There had been another rumor in 2005, however, that had him going to the A’s in exchange for Mark Kotsay. Hughes thought that one would get done, and was relieved that it did not.
“I came out of the draft in ’04, and was pretty much in a trade rumor from then until last year. I’m thankful to still be with the Yankees, and happy how it came out,” Hughes recalled earlier this year. “I’m glad I’m still here.”
Hughes is not alone as a young rotation cornerstone of the team that drafted and developed him. For the Rays, David Price will take the ball in Game 5 of the ALDS against the Rangers. He is part of a postseason rotation that features two other starters – James Shields and Wade Davis – who have only pitched for Tampa Bay as professionals.
The rest of the toughest division in baseball is also dominated by homegrown starters: Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz for the Red Sox; Ricky Romero, Sean Marcum and Brett Cecil for the Blue Jays; Brian Matusz, Brad Bergeson and Jake Arrieta for the Orioles. Increasingly, teams are finding that homegrown starters are not merely a luxury, but a necessity for any successful blueprint.
The young pitchers are taking notice. Lester, for instance, has never forgotten the fact that the Sox had, in fact, made the decision to trade him as the obscure minor leaguer who would have been packaged with Manny Ramirez to Texas in exchange for Alex Rodriguez in 2003. (He recalled the deal being “nixed by [Commissioner] Bud [Selig],” even though it was actually the Players Association that refused to sign off on Rodriguez’ willingness to reduce the value of his contract.)
Lester also remains convinced that he had been all but dealt at another point.
“I was traded at least twice,” he mused.
Yet the 26-year-old also recognizes that times changed as he moved up the ladder. The Sox started refusing to include him and other young starters when teams asked for them, and the dynamic of the game started to change, with young pitchers being treated as more prized possessions than their veteran counterparts.
“I think the Red Sox kind of started that,” Lester suggested. “[GM Theo Epstein] started holding on to these young guys, not relying on paying veterans too much money. Not to say those guys didn’t deserve it for what they’ve done in the game, but I think GMs are finally saying, ‘You know what? We’re going to let young guys learn and figure some things out.’ It’s been nice.”
Certainly, this year’s playoff teams reflect the increasing centrality of drafting and developing starters. Of the 26 pitchers to start a game thus far in this year’s postseason, 12 of them (46 percent) were with the team that drafted them (not including Pettitte, who left the Yankees via free agency and subsequently returned to them in the same fashion).
Since 2000, that is the most starters to pitch for the team that drafted and developed them. Between draftees and international amateurs, exactly half of the 26 starters in this year’s postseason have been homegrown. Again, since 2000, there has been only one other season (2007) that has witnessed so few pitchers who had spent their entire careers with one organization.
Such a dynamic is in marked contrast to the typical upbringing of pitchers on playoff teams just a few years ago. In both 2006 and 2007, 22 of 30 postseason starters (73 percent) had been brought in via trade or free agency. In 2005, a staggering 27 of 31 (87 percent) of postseason starters were imports rather than homegrown products.
In three of the last four years, every playoff team has had at least one homegrown starter, breaking a run of seven straight seasons where at least one club had acquired all of its starters through trades and major league free agency. Most notably, in 2004, four of the eight teams in the October tournament lacked a single pitcher who had come up through their systems.
There are a few forces at work to create the new reality.
First, the cost of elite pitching continues to escalate. As such, even the big market teams such as the Sox and Yankees require rotation bargains to serve as offsets against the big-ticket items.
Secondly, large- and small-market teams alike are moving aggressively to lock up their young, talented pitchers to long-term deals that include some of their free-agent seasons. In so doing, they are diminishing the talent available on the open market, thus creating an imperative for teams to reinforce their rotations internally.
Finally, teams are recognizing that younger pitchers typically yield better returns than their more veteran counterparts. Not only do pitchers tend to enjoy their peak effectiveness in their 20s (typically, before reaching free agency), but they also tend to have more tread on the tires at that point, resulting in greater health and durability.
The result? Given a choice between an up-and-coming stud pitching prospect and a “proven veteran,” teams are increasingly opting for the former.
“These guys are good,” Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland said during the season. “They’re better than some of the older guys.”
As such, teams are not merely giving the ball to a new generation of homegrown pitchers. They are structuring their organizations to give them the best chances of success, creating unified pitching philosophies that stretch from the Dominican to the majors.
“The big league people and minor league people have a better relationship now than they have in the last 25 years,” Eiland, who was drafted by the Yankees in 1987 and has spent most of his professional career as a player or coach in their system, observed. “The philosophy that we use as far as pitching goes is the same in the minor leagues as we use in the majors leagues. Everything is the same. All it is is a bigger stage.”
And now, on baseball’s biggest stage, it is young, homegrown pitchers who are taking center stage.