SNY's Andy Martino will be responding to and breaking down answers to questions each day from readers. Here's the latest...

@zevi_weis: Who is the 5th starter German or Garcia?

When Aaron Boone answers this question by saying that both Domingo German and Deivi Garcia will be important starters for the Yankees this year, he’s not being vague or political. He’s simply being accurate.

We touched on this last week in answering a similar question in a Mets Q&A, but the idea of a “fifth starter” has always been a bit of a false construct because so many teams have used a variety of pitchers in that spot over the course of a season.

The job should be called “The Guy Who Takes the Final Rotation Turn in April, After a Bunch of Rainouts and Off Days.” But that’s not very catchy.

This is true now more than ever for two reasons. One, analytically driven pitching strategy emphasizes covering innings more than specific roles like “starting pitcher.” And two, teams will have to manage the innings of their young pitches this year like never before, because of the tiny 2020 workloads.

Having said all that, Yankees officials rave about how sharp German has looked this spring. They’re thrilled with Garcia, too -- but if we have to venture a reported guess, we’ll predict German breaking camp with a starting assignment, Garcia remaining stretched out at the alternate site, and both taking the ball frequently for the big club this year.

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