On Saturday, the Yankees started the game with an opener for the third consecutive game, but Michael King’s performance was more than just an experiment.

The Yankees started King over Jhony Brito on Saturday with the hopes of extending his workload over the final two months of the season, as their bullpen has strengthened and their rotation has weakened over the last two weeks.

However, this does not meаn that King, who has started before, will be doing it again.

Manager Aaron Boone warned that the Yankees may still need King to come out of the bullpen in high-leverage situations, and the reliever does not have enough time remaining in the season to build up to a starter’s workload.

However, the Yankees will give King another chance to prove he can provide more than just two- or three-inning relief appearances.

“Just feel like with some of our injuries, potentially a chance to stretch him out a little bit,” Boone said Saturday before game two of the Yankees’ series with the Marlins at loanDepot Park.

If all goes well and he can throw 40 pitches over the course of a few innings on Saturday, he might be back in the rotation in three or four days. Considering how we might require him on any given day, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to get him fully primed. But I’m doing everything I can to keep things interesting.

After King injured his elbow last July, it was just two weeks ago that the Yankees felt confident utilizing him on consecutive days for the first time this season.

The Yankees have added Jonathan Loaisiga and Keynan Middleton to their bullpen in the past two weeks, but they have also lost Nestor Cortes (possibly for the season), Carlos Rodon, and Domingo German to the injured list.

The Yankees are trying to give themselves another option in King after recalling Randy Vasquez and Brito from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to enter the rotation this weekend in place of Rodon and Cortes. Both pitchers will be pitching behind openers. Luis Severino has been struggling mightily.

Boone speculated that the team might try to “build him up a little bit” while acknowledging his significance as a high-leverage reliever. Having “a little more length there at the back end” thanks to the return of Loaisiga and the addition of Middleton “may allow for this role for Kinger.”

King, who started every game during his junior year at Boston College and again from 2017-19 in the minors, has talked about wanting to do it again.

On Friday night, when Boone broke the news, the right-hander was relieved.

“When I broached it to him, he was excited about it,” Boone stated. “Yeah, he has shown that interest on and off ever since spring training, a couple times this year, of ‘Hey, I can start, too.'” He’s been indispensable, really.

It makes a little bit of sense to have him have some lengthier outings when he can, especially now that we’ve gotten some guys back to our bullpen and had some ailments in our rotation.

When asked if King could be able to increase his pitch count to the 60-70 range by the conclusion of the season, Boone answered, “it depends.”

Boone explained that the team’s strategy “could be in a need two or three days from now where it is putting out a fire in a game or in a big spot in a game,” and that this would rely on what they had utilized the day before. So, we’ll have to wait and see. We’ll leave it on the table and work on getting his threshold up high enough to pitch many innings on some days.