ONE BIG BUT
Chamman's early struggles eclipsed by Yanks' success
BALTIMORE — Aroldis Chapman is lucky the Yankees are on a historically good run to start the season, since it’s overshadowing the start he has had to the season.
After allowing a run in the Yankess’ one-run win over the Orioles at Camden Yards on Tuesday night, he has been scored upon in each of his last four outings.
Even before that stretch, Chapman was putting up some alarming numbers and was occasionally saved by other members of the bullpen.
To this point, the Yankees haven’t shown an inclination towards making a change at closer, thanks in part to their torrid start.
Chapman still hasn’t blown a save this season, but has allowed more baserunners than any other member of the Yankees’ pen, with a WHIP of 1.46.
That’s nearly twice as many baserunners as Clay Holmes — who was warming in the ninth inning on Tuesday — has allowed (0.74 WHIP).
With Chapman unavailable Wednesday after pitching three times in four days, Holmes picked up a two-inning save, allowing just an infield single to Austin Hays, in a 3-2 win over Baltimore.
It extended Holmes’ scoreless streak to 19 2/3 innings and could lead to more save opportunities.
Among Chapman’s problems is his average velocity on his fourseam fastball is 96.8 mph — down 1 mph since just last season. It used to routinely hit triple-digits.
That, coupled with the added velocity from pitchers throughout the game, has taken away what made Chapman unique.
As the White Sox’s Tim Anderson said Saturday, after he singled during a game-winning rally against Chapman in the bottom of the ninth, the lefty’s stuff is not that special anymore.
“Nowadays, everybody’s throwing 99 mph,’’ Anderson said. “So it’s kind of regular.”
So are Chapman’s results, which have become pretty pedestrian.
Hitters are reaching base against Chapman more than ever before. Opposing batters had a .320 on-base percentage when facing him in 2021 — by far his worst season in that category — and that has increased to .323 this season.
Perhaps most glaring of all is the lack of strikeouts.
Once Chapman’s specialty, he’s whiffing just 24.2 percent of the hitters he’s faced. His previous low was 32.9 percent in 2017 and his career mark is 40.7 percent.
Before his latest slip up, pitching coach Matt Blake attempted to diagnose Chapman’s problems.
He called them part of the “ebbs and flows” of a season, but then broke down a bit of what’s been wrong with Chapman’s approach during poor performances.
“If things go wrong, he typically can’t find his fastball right away, whether it’s 94 [mph] or 101,’’ Blake said. “Then his delivery might go a little bit and he’ll start throwing his slider and he becomes predictable.”
That’s because once hitters know Chapman doesn’t have confidence in his fastball, he’ll look to throw strikes with the slider.
“Guys are ready for it,’’ Blake said.
The key, Blake said, is for Chapman to “throw the fastball at fullspeed, whatever it is that day, over the plate and be able to repeat it,’’ Blake said. “It’s not always gonna be 100 [mph]. If it’s 94, 96, 97, we can live with that. It’s when he spikes one and then backs down and can’t find it that he gets in trouble. The biggest thing is for him to work off his fastball… We tell him, ‘You have a 100 mph fastball. Throw it.’ ”
Unfortunately for the Yankees, that’s not always the case anymore.