​And we thought the way the Indians deployed Andrew Miller during the 2016 postseason was a revelation! Well, the game's about to change, baseball fans.





The Tampa Bay Rays, who are hovering around .500, need to find a way to differentiate themselves in today's MLB. They're in a small market, barely spend any money, and elected to undergo a confounding rebuild by getting rid of players they were barely paying anyway. Not sure why, but this is what they do, and the fact they're in the middle of the pack in the MLB is pretty impressive given we've played over 40 games this year.





Manager Kevin Cash and the front office are about to try out something new, considering the team's starting rotation isn't exactly overwhelming, ranking 18th with a 4.37 ERA. How did nobody think of this before?

#Rays news: Sergio Romo to start Saturday, part of another new pitching idea to play matchups in first inning, get Yarbrough deeper. https://t.co/KfWIFOFJzz — Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) May 18, 2018

​​Probably because the premium on starting pitchers nowadays is prohibitive, and you need to drop at least $150 million for an ace unless you develop one in-house, which is incredibly hard to do.





But yes, the Rays will start reliever Sergio Romo, who has made 588 relief appearances in his career, on Saturday, in order to help rookie Ryan Yarbrough get acclimated to MLB competition without being overwhelmed.

Rays new pitching plan: pic.twitter.com/Ew411iOP3x — Thomas Carannante (@TurkeyTom17) May 18, 2018

How will that work? See for yourself:





"The thinking is that Romo's combination of slow, sweeping breaking balls will stymie the six or so aggressive right-handers at the top of the Angels order," writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.





"And that that in theory would allow Yarbrough to come in against the bottom third of the order and work deeper into the game without facing the likes of Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Justin Upton for an onerous third time."





Baseball traditionalists are either smashing their keyboards or just hurled in the nearest garbage can. "How can a reliever start the game?! That's not how it's supposed to be played!"

SHOCKING NEWS from #RaysUp #Rays manager Kevin Cash on "Power Alley":



Sergio Romo is ridiculously excited to make his first career start on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/1LLM5ptxaN — MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (@MLBNetworkRadio) May 18, 2018

Well, while this might not be the soundest of strategies to implement during the 162-game regular season, it's certainly worth trying for a team like the Rays that needs to switch things up or another squad trying to ease in a rookie starter.





But more importantly, this could transform playoff baseball.





Think of teams like the Yankees and Red Sox. The two teams have dominant closers and relatively weak back ends of their starting rotations. When competing against a team like the Houston Astros, who will probably start a Charlie Morton in a hypothetical Game 4, do New York and Boston want to risk throwing out Sonny Gray, Jordan Montgomery, Eduardo Rodriguez or Drew Pomeranz to start off the game against a potent offense?

The #Yankees will need to add depth to their starting pitching as the season goes on. Here's a look at a few options for GM Brian Cashman | #PinstripePride



✍️by @MyPinstripes



Read: https://t.co/xP8tAnXq0V pic.twitter.com/DngcyRdxrS — Bronx Pinstripes (@BronxPinstripes) May 5, 2018

Why not have Aroldis Chapman or Craig Kimbrel kick things off for a couple innings, throw off Houston's lineup, and then either toss in one of those guys to go 4-5 innings or toss in another reliever to eat up one more inning before bringing in the real starter?





The Indians making a call to the bullpen for Andrew Miller in the fifth or sixth inning once seemed crazy. Now, if the Rays strategy works or has any semblance of hope, expect to see even more radical scenarios that appear to be a mutiny on baseball's pitching structure.





Who Provides the Best Line-Up Protection in the MLB? Didi Gregorius, Yankees Carlos Correa, Astros JD Martinez, Red Sox Anthony Rizzo, Cubs

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