BOSTON -- The Yankees have had no shortage of innovative plans to help guide Joba Chamberlain's development, so it stands to reason that they may be able to come up with a few more this offseason.

Manager Joe Girardi said on Sunday that while no decisions have been made, the Yankees potentially could use the 23-year-old right-hander in their starting rotation for the entire 2009 season, as long as they carefully select his innings.

"I think we've gotten creative in the year and a half that I've been here, so we'll probably figure something out," Chamberlain said.

Working around an innings limit that was believed to be in the 150 range, the Yankees prepared Chamberlain as a starter for most of Spring Training before making him their primary eighth-inning option to open the season.

In June, Chamberlain transitioned into the rotation by extending his pitch counts, and he made 12 starts before tendinitis in his throwing shoulder forced him from an Aug. 4 start and onto the disabled list, where he remained until September.

Girardi said that the Yankees would not necessarily have to follow the same blueprint in 2009.

Speaking hypothetically, he said that the Yankees could open the season with Chamberlain in the rotation and plan to add spot starters or skip Chamberlain altogether, keeping his innings total under control.

"If you have depth in your rotation, you don't necessarily have to make 32 starts like everyone else," Girardi said. "You can be somewhat cautious in a sense. The [Yankees] teams that we had here when I was here -- and they were successful -- there were six or seven starters, usually."

Thus, Chamberlain's situation will factor at least somewhat into how the Yankees attack the free-agent market. Girardi expects the rotation to be a main focus, especially with free agents Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina facing uncertain futures.

The Yankees are expected to offer some pursuit to such top free-agent pitchers as CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, both of whom would add sizzle to the top of the rotation, but the club cannot operate with any guarantee that there would be mutual interest. Other options will also be considered.

"Wherever we put [Chamberlain], I believe he's going be a plus for us," Girardi said. "But I think it depends on the decisions we make this winter."

Chamberlain entered the final day of the regular season with a 4-3 record and 2.42 ERA, having thrown 100 1/3 innings -- 65 1/3 of them as a starter.

He was 3-1 with a 2.76 ERA as a starter and 1-2 with a 1.85 ERA as a reliever, and though he expressed a preference earlier in the season for starting, he said that he will be fine either way the Yankees choose to use him.

"I've got my first year under my belt, and I know what it takes," he said. "The year can get you, and you've just got to be prepared. Mentally, I think that's the thing -- you just want to make sure that you've got it, and what you need to do, and how to prepare."

Part of his preference for starting comes with the rigid sequence of how he would spend the four days between starts, knowing just when he is able to lift weights and run, and how much he should.

As a reliever, he said, he has to stagger his workouts to keep something in the tank in case he is called upon later that day, a thought he has shared with Girardi.

The manager said that his coaching staff had a similar discussion over dinner after Saturday's rainout in Boston, bringing up such names as Dennis Eckersley and John Smoltz as examples of pitchers who both started and worked out of the bullpen.

"It's going to come down to what's best for the team in the long run," Chamberlain said. "I've done both now, so I kind of understand what it takes. We'll sit down and figure out what's going to be best for this team."

Chamberlain said that he considered the season a success, even with his stint on the disabled list from Aug. 6 through Sept. 1. In fact, though most viewed it as a setback, Chamberlain optimistically said that being on the shelf might have been beneficial for his future.

"I think I actually made the most progress when I was hurt," he said. "I got to watch a game. Being in the dugout or being in the bullpen, you can't watch a game. You can't see pitches and how they're setting a guy up. I got an opportunity to watch and learn a lot.

"If you look at the numbers of fastballs I've thrown since I've been hurt, coming back, it's better than it has been. I've learned that if you can do a lot of things with your fastball, throwing hard is OK, but you can throw it up and down, in and out. I figured some things out."