Bullpen needs to have an upgrade
Holmes, King provide the relief, while the rest provide plenty of stress
NEW YORK —The Yankees’ bullpen is currently two of the best relievers in the entire game and six question marks.
While Clay Holmes and Michael King have been beyond fantastic, injuries have decimated the rest of the bullpen. Relief pitching and left field are the only true weak spots on this team, and with an extremely top-heavy American League landscape, the Yankees stand a great chance of playing deep into October with the right additions.
With this year’s trade deadline set for Aug. 2, there’s still plenty of time for moves to be made all across the league. But the Yankees have no reason to wait. Given their recent struggles against the Astros (who entered play on Monday just five games behind the Yankees in the loss column), the Yankees’ front office can’t afford to get complacent. A playoff spot is a certainty, but if they’re not careful, the Astros could surpass them for the AL’S best record, forcing a potential ALCS Game 7 to be played in the Yankees’ house of horrors in Houston.
Like most teams, the Yankees like to carry eight relievers on their active roster. If they stick with that plan for the postseason — the alternative would be nine relievers and a three-man bench — it’d be prudent to add a few more trustworthy arms to that group. Holmes and King are nothing to worry about yet, and Wandy Peralta and Lucas Luetge have both excelled in their roles, holding lefties to a sub-.200 batting average.
That leaves four spots. Aroldis Chapman will command one of them, but at this point in the 34-year-old’s career, it’s hard to know for sure what you’re going to get out of him. His 5.14 ERA, careerlow 21.7% strikeout rate and threewalk, two-run performance in his recent return from the injured list don’t exactly inspire a ton of confidence.
By playing the classic game of identifying good players on bad teams with expiring contracts, we find some logical trade targets for Hal Steinbrenner. The Tigers’ Michael Fulmer and Rockies’ Alex Colome are both enjoying good seasons, as is Colome’s teammate Daniel Bard. Fulmer, the 2016 AL
Rookie of the Year, has been phenomenal in his first year as a full-time reliever. While he’s struggled with walks, the 29-year-old is holding opponents to a .157 batting average. Moving to the bullpen has allowed him to lean more on his slider, a pitch that he’s now throwing over 60% of the time and producing a .153 slugging percentage against.
Colome’s strikeout percentage has plummeted, but his 54.6% ground ball rate would fit in nicely with the Yankees’ relief corps, who already lead Major League Baseball in inducing grounders. For what it’s worth, Colome is also familiar with the process of getting traded during a season. He went from Tampa to Seattle in 2018 as the Mariners chased a playoff spot. Bard, the former Red Sox phenom who overcame a severe case of the yips to make it back to the big leagues after a sevenyear absence, is the Rockies’ leader in saves.
With a 2.05 ERA in 29.1 innings, plus a disgusting slider and strikeout rate in the 88th percentile, Bard could be more than just a feel-good story for these Yankees.
Of those three, Bard is the only one who’s pitched in a postseason game at a full stadium (Colome appeared in the 2020 playoffs before fans were allowed), and that was all the way back in 2009. If postseason experience is something the Yankees want to prioritize, they could give old friend David Robertson a holler. Robertson is putting up his best numbers since 2017, a year when he was, coincidentally, traded from Chicago to the Yankees in July.
In that case, it was the White Sox who let him go. This year, it would be the Cubs, who have watched
Robertson pitch to a 1.72 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and 251 ERA+, meaning he’s been a staggering 151% better than the average reliever. The Cubs have been an abomination this year and have no incentive at all to keep Robertson, who, at 37 years old with only a few months left on his contract, could probably be had for some minor league filler.