PeteAbe is reporting that Girardi officially announced that Joba will start the season in the bullpen and be used in the “back end of games.” I’m not sure that I want Joba doing the set up job again if the long term vision is to move him into a starter’s job someday soon.
I think they need to put Joba in situations where he needs to pace himself, and use all of his pitches and that doesn’t sound like a set up man to me.
The risk is that the more one or two inning appearances he makes, he could forget the starting mentality, and let some of his secondary pitches atrophy.
He’s a professional and he’s surrounded by professional coaches, so maybe I’m worrying about nothing, but I don’t think the Yankees can be too careful with this dude.
