The New York Yankees did not enter the offseason in need of any starting pitching reinforcements. The Yankees’ rotation was the backbone of their success in the 2022 season, ranking fourth in all of baseball in team ERA (3.51) and fifth in total strikeouts (897).

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman still decided to bolster the rotation, as he came to terms with Carlos Rodon on a six-year, $162 million contract deal in December. With this blockbuster signing, the Yankees head into the 2023 campaign with four former All-Stars in their rotation in Rodon, Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes Jr., and Luis Severino.

Cole has been keeping a close watch on the Yankees pitchers who will round out the team’s starting rotation, and he likes what he has seen from them so far.

“I really like the way everybody looks,” Cole said at the Yankees’ spring training complex in Tampa, Florida. “Sevy looks fresh. He’s got some wild horse characteristics to him right now; he’s got a lot of horsepower right now. I thought his second inning was really good — he fired off four or five fastballs in a row to Giancarlo, and I felt like … he got better from there.

“And Carlos looks really good, especially from the feedback from everybody else. He’s just settling into his velocity, and his stuff looks really good.”

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There is plenty of optimism among the hurlers in the Yankees' rotation heading into the upcoming 2023 season. For one, Rodon sees that the sky is the limit for what the starters on the team can accomplish this year.

“It’s going to be pretty good, I would say,” Rodon said on Feb. 16. “A lot of good arms. Quite a few All-Stars, it seems like. I think it could be something special if we all do our job and show up every five days and take the ball, even though sometimes we won’t feel great. That’s just part of the game.

“If we show up and take the ball, everything else will take care of itself.”

The Yankees will have their long-awaited first spring training game of the year on Feb. 25 with a road matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies.