Green has experience to bolster Yankees’ bullpen
One in a series.
With Tommy Kahnle, Adam Ottavino, Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman, the Yankees’ 2019 bullpen thrived despite having Dellin Betances for just two-thirds of an inning in September.
Since Betances signed with the Mets as a free agent, the Yankees won’t have one of baseball’s premier relievers, but will have a chance to possess an improved pen because Chad Green won’t likely be needed as an “opener” if and when the season begins.
When spring training was paused on March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Yankees were locked into Gerrit Cole, Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ and Jordan Montgomery in the rotation, and enough depth to fill out the fifth spot even with Domingo German suspended. That depth included Jonathan Loaisiga and Luis Cessa at the top of the chart and, if needed due to injury or poor performance, Deivi Garcia, Clarke Schmidt and Michael King waiting in the minors.
That would leave Aaron Boone to use Green exclusively in the pen, a place the hard-throwing righthander dominated in 2018 when he posted a 2.50 ERA in 63 games (no openers) and struck out 98 in 69 innings.
As good as Green was in 2018 he was that bad to start last season when he was sent to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in late April thanks to a 16.43 ERA in 10 relief outings. In 7 2/3 innings, Green gave up 15 hits (four homers) as batters hit a whopping .395 against him and posted a 1.228 OPS.
When the right-handed Green returned to the varsity, he morphed into his 2018 version with a 2.64 ERA in 44 games (15 starts) and worked 61 ¹/3 innings in which he limited hitters to a .223 average and
posted a .653 OPS. He struck out 91 compared to 15 walks.
“I don’t want to put any pressure on him at all, but I think Chad is one of our best pitchers,’’ Ottavino told The Post’s Joel Sherman in June.
Green credited a simple change in his delivery for the success in his 44 games upon returning from SWB.
An NL talent evaluator believes Green, who will be 29 on May 24, is good enough to pitch the seventh and eighth innings for the Yankees and the ninth for other teams. And end his days pitching the initial inning of a game.
“Not make him an opener,’’ the scout said of Green.
The Yankees won the first nine games Green started in 2019 and went 11-4 overall. Green pitched to a 3.72 ERA as an opener but was aided by the Yankees scoring 64 runs in that nine-game winning streak and 93 in the 15 games.
Chapman, Britton, Kahnle and Ottavino (postseason aside) turned in solid seasons for the Yankees last year. Assigning Green to full-time relief duty strengthens a strong point.
“They have a lot of options late and that give guys breathers which is something not a lot of teams have,’’ the scout said.