Brian Cashman says CC Sabathia will stay in Yankees' rotation

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Despite CC Sabathia's continuing struggles this season, New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said there is no chance the 34-year-old former Cy Young Award winner will be removed from the team's starting rotation.

"That's not something that we're considering at this moment," Cashman told ESPNNewYork.com on Tuesday. "We're going to continue to give him every opportunity to work through this for the foreseeable future."

Sabathia took the defeat in Monday night's 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Angels to run his 2015 record to 3-8. His ERA is 5.59, the highest of all but four other starting pitchers in Major League Baseball. Sabathia's 1.400 WHIP, a measurement of hits and walks per inning pitched, places him 83rd among 99 starting pitchers.

And the 19 home runs he has allowed in his 15 starts are tops in the American League and second in MLB only to Kyle Kendrick of the Colorado Rockies, who has allowed 23.

"The home runs are a big issue," Cashman said. "That's something that's new for him, in the last couple of years. If they're solo shots, they're not as painful."

Sabathia allowed two solo home runs Monday night, to Mike Trout and C.J. Cron, and has allowed nine home runs in his past five starts. In 2013, Sabathia allowed a career-high 28 home runs. Cashman acknowledged Tuesday that Sabathia is "approaching that number quick."

Sabathia, who will turn 35 on July 21, is also on pace to lose more games than he ever has in any one season of his 15-year big league career; he went 14-13 in 2013. Last season Sabathia experienced his first sub-.500 season, going 3-4 in a year shortened by a knee injury that required surgery.

Sabathia has won just one game in the past six weeks, a 6-2 victory over the Angels at Yankee Stadium on June 7. In between, he has taken three no decisions and the loss Monday night, allowing 27 hits and 17 earned runs in 23 innings.

"I just battled," Sabathia said after Monday night's game, in which he worked 7 1/3 innings, his longest outing since April 20. "I made some good pitches. I made some bad pitches. It's just part of it. But I'm battling, and I feel like I'm getting better."

"He's still competing and finding himself," Cashman said. "I think early on he had not the best of luck or run support."

Asked whether he expected Sabathia -- who has another year, at $25 million, plus a vesting option for 2017 at an additional $25 million left on his contract -- to ever be an effective starting pitcher for the Yankees again, Cashman said, "That is our expectation and our hope."

Instead, as announced Monday night, it will be right-hander Adam Warren who will be removed from the Yankees' rotation, even though he has been the most reliable member of the starting staff for the past month.

Cashman said that was a decision based more on limiting Warren's workload than on his performance. Warren, who had never worked more than 78 2/3 innings in either of his previous two big league seasons, was up to 82 1/3 innings this year through 14 starts.

"We have to manage his innings," Cashman said. "He's pitched great, but we're giving him a timeout. It doesn't mean he's out of the rotation for good. We're giving him a breather, and if somebody gets hurt, he automatically goes back in."