This spring has brought big-spending Yankees almost nothing but pain

Then ace righthander Gerrit Cole underwent Tommy John surgery on Tuesday in Los Angeles and is out for the season.

With Cole and Gil out, Carlos Rodón will be the Opening Day starter and Stroman likely the No. 3 or 4 depending on how the Yankees set their rotation.

Max Fried, Clarke Schmidt, and Will Warren are the other starters for now.

Fried and Rodón have averaged 25 starts over last four years, and Stroman wasn’t deemed worthy of pitching in the postseason last season.

Schmidt has been dealing with a back injury and has made one start in spring training. Warren was 0-3 with a 9.55 ERA in five starts last season.

The Yankees also have righthander Carlos Carrasco. He turns 38 on Friday and had a 5.64 ERA in 21 starts for the Guardians last season.

Trading for a starting pitcher so close to the start of the season would be difficult. The Padres would consider moving Dylan Cease, but would want a productive hitter in return.

Adding salary would be a concern and perhaps even prohibitive. The Yankees have surpassed the highest luxury tax threshold and any additional payroll would be taxed at 110 percent.

General manager Brian Cashman acknowledged there’s not much available at this point of the season.

The lineup also took a hit with Giancarlo Stanton expected to miss at least two months, if not the entire season, with what have been described as “chronic” injuries to both elbows which could require surgery.

Stanton has already had two rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections. The issue started at the end of last season and didn’t heal over the offseason.

“We thought we were in a good place and now we’re dealing with it,” Cashman said. “We’ll certainly look forward to getting him back but in the near-term that won’t be the case.”

Surgery would be a last resort, Cashman said.

Aaron Judge drew 133 walks last season with Juan Soto hitting ahead of him most of the season and Stanton often behind him. With Stanton out and Soto with the Mets, Judge could challenge the franchise record of 170 set by Babe Ruth in 1923.

Still, the Yankees remain formidable offensively, with five regulars back from a 94-win team and the additions of Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt.

The loss of Stanton sharpens the focus on what Anthony Volpe, Oswald Peraza, Austin Wells, Ben Rice, and other younger players can provide.

Manager Aaron Boone is a fan of Rice, the Cohasset native who played in 50 games last season and hit seven home runs.

The Yankees also have 22-year-old Jasson Domínguez, the highly touted prospect who has struggled offensively and defensively in left field in spring training but still has vast potential.

“You have to move on,” Boone said. “The goals don’t change.”

The Red Sox had nine bullpen games last season and three others started by James Paxton, who was designated for assignment by the Dodgers before landing in Boston. He tore a calf muscle in his third start for the Sox and has since retired.

The constant hole in the rotation was wearying, particularly for the bullpen.

The additions of Alex Bregman, Walker Buehler, and Garrett Crochet changed the look of the Sox, but the team’s improved rotation depth might prove just as vital.

Cooper Criswell, Richard Fitts, and Quinn Priester are three pitchers they can trust with starts. All have remaining minor league options, which offers roster flexibility.

With Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, and Lucas Giolito set to open the season on the injured list, the Sox have replacements lined up.

“It’s very important,” manager Alex Cora said. “It puts us in a much better position.

Criswell, Fitts, and Priester had a 3.25 ERA through their first nine games in spring training, five of them starts. They’ll fill in for the injured starters to open the season.

Giolito doesn’t expect a slight left hamstring strain to keep him out for long. Bello has started building up after arriving at camp with a sore shoulder. That will take roughly a month.

Crawford is out with a knee injury from last season. He and the team opted for a rehab program rather than surgery to solve a tendinitis issue that started last April. Crawford has ramped up his throwing in recent days and believes he can be ready to rejoin the rotation sometime in the spring.

“More sooner than later,” Crawford said.

He’s also using the time to smooth out his mechanics to become more efficient.

A few other observations on the Red Sox:

⋅ Masataka Yoshida has had a solid camp. He was 6 for 22 with only three strikeouts in his first seven Grapefruit League games and has hit the ball hard against live pitching in workouts.

But he has nowhere to play.

Yoshida has yet to appear in the outfield as his surgically repaired right shoulder gains strength. And there’s no need for a lefthanded hitting DH with Rafael Devers in that role.

So what now?

Yoshida could open the season on the IL, then slide into the outfield mix over time. A trade isn’t impossible, but good luck finding a partner given the three years and $55.8 million left on his contract.

⋅ Lefthander Sean Newcomb is making a case for the Opening Day roster. In four games, the 31-year-old from Middleborough has allowed one run on five hits over 9⅔ innings with three walks and 10 strikeouts.

Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock are multi-inning options in the bullpen. The Sox also have three lefthanded relief options in Aroldis Chapman, Justin Wilson, and Brennan Bernardino.

Merit does not always factor into Opening Day roster decisions as teams want to maintain their depth, and Newcomb is signed to a minor league contract. But he is giving the Sox a lot to consider, perhaps even stretching him out to start.

⋅ Buehler opted to pitch in an intrasquad game at JetBlue Park on Thursday rather then spend five hours on a bus to start against the Mets in Port St. Lucie.

Pitching before a subdued audience of team officials, people taking the $10 stadium tour, and a handful of reporters, Buehler went four innings and threw 61 pitches.

There was one added benefit: Buehler was able to spend time after the game talking to the hitters he had just faced.

“There’s some conversations that we can have later that kind of help everyone,” he said. “Bregman and I kind of talked through his at-bats and I’ll talk to the other guys.

“There’s different things you can pull out of it. Nothing simulates facing other major league hitters. But if you can get guys who are open and can explain what they see, there’s a need for that at times.”

This Sox team seems to be more of a group that will hang around and talk about baseball, compared with recent years, because of players like Bregman and Buehler.

⋅ One other takeaway from the instrasquad game was the play of 21-year-old shortstop Luis Ravelo, one of the minor leaguers playing defense behind Buehler.

He made a ridiculous play to take a hit away from Yoshida, ranging far to his left, then making a strong throw from the outfield grass. He made a similar, if less spectacular, play on Bregman.

⋅ Keep an eye on 21-year-old lefty Brandon Clarke. He’s 6 feet 4 inches, 220 pounds, and has pitched only 105⅔ innings since graduating from high school.

Clarke originally committed to Alabama, but landed at a junior college in Bradenton, Fla., for two years. He intended to enroll at South Carolina before the Sox took him in the fifth round of the draft last June and signed for $400,000.

He has yet to appear in a minor league game, but that should change soon.

A few weeks ago, several Sox major leaguers had a session of live batting practice inside JetBlue Park. As they wrapped up, Clarke took the mound and started to warm up.

A few of the hitters hung around to get a few extra at-bats, saw Clarke throwing 101-mile-per-hour fastballs, and decided it was time to head back to the clubhouse.

⋅ Fans grew tired of all the offseason reports about the Red Sox being close to signing free agents who went elsewhere, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t true.

Corbin Burnes told the “Foul Territory” podcast that the Sox and Orioles “had the big offers out” for him, but he was determined to play for the Diamondbacks because of the team’s proximity to his home in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Burnes and his wife have three young children who can live at home all year instead of spending eight weeks in Florida for spring training, then six months on the East Coast. That matters.

Burnes also signed for six years and $210 million, so it wasn’t like he gave the Diamondbacks a big discount.

⋅ The Red Sox had their annual closest-to-the-pin golf competition on Wednesday. The winner was baseball communications staffer Devin Benson, who defeated a field of well-paid professional athletes.

When MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark visited Fenway South last week, most of the questions he answered involved labor issues with the league.

On a more logistical topic, Clark was asked about the 162 games scheduled to be played in minor league parks this season and how visiting teams would be impacted.

Tampa Bay moving into Steinbrenner Field in Tampa was a common-sense decision after Hurricane Milton badly damaged Tropicana Field. The Rays will play only 21 miles from home for what they hope will be only one season.

“You make the best of it,” Clark said.

But letting the Athletics bungle their way into at least a three-year stay in Sacramento before moving to Las Vegas could have — or should have — been prevented.

“Yes, it’s a concern,” Clark said. “We’ve been working with the league on that, and our hope is the work that we’ve done will ensure that that facility is up to snuff. We hope that all that work is going to be beneficial.

“When the [players] get there, they’ll let us know whether or not all of the moving pieces are going to put them in the best position possible to be successful. That one’s been out of our hands.”

Sacramento built a new clubhouse beyond the left field wall at Sutter Health Park for the home team. The visiting team will use a clubhouse inside the stadium that has been remodeled.

The Red Sox play the Rays in Tampa April 14-16. The Rays will have played four home series by then, so any issues should be ironed out. The only trip the Sox will make to Sacramento will be Sept. 8-10.

The Cubs took 23-year-old Matt Shaw to Japan for what would be his major league debut Tuesday against the Dodgers in Tokyo. The Brimfield native starred at Worcester Academy and the University of Maryland before he was the 13th pick of the 2023 draft, one slot ahead of the Red Sox taking Kyle Teel … Sal Frelick earned a Gold Glove last season and started 129 games for a Brewers team that won 93 games. He wants more. The former Lexington High and Boston College star added 20 pounds in the offseason and is hitting the ball with more authority in Cactus League games, according to scouts who have seen him play. Frelick is unlikely to become a big home-run hitter — he has six in 767 career plate appearances (including postseason). But 40 extra-base hits, 25 stolen bases, and 80 runs scored would go far in changing his offensive profile … The Dodgers won 98 games last season with 17 pitchers making at least one start and only two making more than 18. They seem to have a similar plan for this season. Los Angeles appears set to open the season with a rotation of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Dustin May. Their depth starters are Ben Casparius, Landon Knack, Bobby Miller, and Justin Wrobleski. They also have Tony Gonsolin, Clayton Kershaw, and Shohei Ohtani returning from surgery later on during the season. That’s 12 starters — five who have been All-Stars, four others who have pitched for World Series-winning teams, and the best pitching prospect on the planet in Sasaki … Then you have the Mets. A team with a $305.6 million payroll named Clay Holmes as its Opening Day starter. Holmes made four starts as a rookie with the 2018 Pirates, but has pitched in relief since. The other possibilities — Sean Manaea, David Peterson, or Kodai Senga — won’t be ready for the first game … The Baseball Writers’ Association of America voted in 2016 to make all Hall of Fame ballots public, something the Hall has rejected. The sides agreed to add a box that voters could check if they wanted to make their votes public on the BBWAA web site. The BBWAA then requested that the wording be changed so a voter would check the box only if they did not want their ballot revealed. The Hall rejected that tweak Thursday … The Hall’s new “From Dreams to Reality” exhibit salutes women in baseball. The objects on display include the helmet worn by Brown University’s Olivia Pichardo in 2023, when she became the first woman to appear in an NCAA Division 1 baseball game, and the cap worn by University of Maine-Presque Isle pitcher Oz Sailors in 2015 when she became the first woman to captain a men’s collegiate team . . . Mark your calendars. The trade deadline is at 6 p.m. on July 31. Under the latest collective bargaining agreement, the commissioner can set the deadline between July 28 and Aug. 3 … Happy birthday to Stephen Drew, who is 42. The shortstop played 163 games for the Red Sox from 2013-14 and started all 16 games in the 2013 playoff run. His oldest brother, J.D., played for the Sox from 2007-11. Stephen was the more effusive of the Drews, which isn’t saying much. A third brother, Tim, pitched in the majors from 2000-04.

Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him @PeteAbe.