Peralta, middle relief crew will play huge role in upcoming season

NEW YORK — There are analyticsdarlings,thenthere is Wandy Peralta.

Without getting too deep into the mind-numbing stats that made the Yankees fall in love with him, Peralta induced a ground ball on over 53% of his batted balls, held lefties to a .155 average with just two extra-base hits all year and ranked in the 92nd percentile or better in whiff percentage, hard-hit rate and average exit velocity.

Peralta also allowed just two home runs, tied for the fewest of any left-handed reliever who logged at least 50 innings. He was an indispensablepartoftheyankees’ bullpen, even more so as the season progressed and they lost Chad Green, Michael King, Ron Marinaccio and Scott Effross to injury.

But relievers are always the hardest players to forecast from one year to the next. With a 1.05 WHIP — boosted by a ridiculous 0.83 mark at Yankee Stadium — there is a lot of room for Peralta’s numbers to turn on him. Right now, there’s no way to know how good Peralta will pitch in 2023, which will be his eighth season in the big leagues. What is already abundantly clear,though,ishowimportanthe’llbetohisteam’soverall wellbeing.

Now that Lucas Luetge is with Atlanta, Aroldis Chapman is a Kansas City Royal and Zack Britton is in free agent limbo after more arm troubles, Peralta is one of just two lefty relievers on the Yankees’ 40-man roster. The other is Matt Krook, a 27-year-oldwho’sbeeninthe minor leagues for his whole career and doesn’t figure to be part of the Yankees’ game plan this year. Barring some injuries that throw Krook into the blender, or a transaction, it’s very possible that Peralta will be the only lefthanded reliever to throw a pitch for the 2023 Yankees.

That’s not exactly a bad thing, as Peralta kept lefthanded hitters to a .211 slugging percentage last year, striking out 24 of them while allowing just 11 hits. The three-batter minimum for relief pitchers has also led to teams employing fewer southpaw relievers altogether, as their managers can no longer plug them in for one at-bat against the other team’s most fearsome lefty. So, the Yankees probably won’t be the only team to roll into Opening Day with just a single lefty in the pen.tradingluetgeshowed some confidence in the rest of the relievers being able to stifle lefties, and when you look at some of Peralta’s teammates’ splits, that starts to make more sense.

Despite being righthanded, Marinaccio was death to lefties last year, with his wipeout changeup proving very difficult to opposite-handed hitters, who he limited to a .146/.247/.232 slash line. Lefties had a lower batting average against King than righties did, too, and during his long career, lefties have had a tougher time getting on base against Tommy Kahnle than right-handers have. If, say, the Yankees use Peralta for a pivotal plate appearance against a lefty in the sixth inning, there are people who can come in for the eighth inning to get that same guy out again.