Yank pen could use an upgrade
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, career-low 21.7% strikeout rate and three-walk, two-run performance in his recent return from the injured list don’t exactly inspire a ton of confidence.
Whenever he comes back, it’s also difficult to project what kind of finish Jonathan Loaisiga will have to his tumultuous season. Loaisiga hasn’t pitched in a game at any level since May 22, when he was shelled by the White Sox and placed on the IL shortly thereafter with shoulder inflammation. The Yankees desperately need the Loaisiga of last season to show up again if they want any sort of internal improvement from the bullpen. With Ron Marinaccio landing on the IL with shoulder problems of his own, and the team trading little-used lefty Manny Banuelos to Pittsburgh, the bullpen doesn’t have any real depth to speak of right now.
That could all change quickly if the team picks up the phone and ignites in the in-season hot stove. Yes, they’ll get Loaisiga back at some point and will slot Domingo German into the bullpen as well when he’s back to full health. But those days are coming down the road, and injured players don’t help a team win today. At present, the Yankees are counting on a lot of guys with jersey numbers in the 80s and 90s to secure big outs at the end of games. With the ever-looming possibility that Holmes and King will regress back toward their typical numbers at some point, it makes sense for the Yankees to seek some help from other teams.
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 seven-year 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.
The Cubs’ Mychal Givens and Detroit’s Andrew Chafin are semi-intriguing options, but both are under contract for next season as well, the same situation that has left the Yankees stuck with 2021 deadline acquisition Joey Gallo.
The time to get going is now, though, as other teams around the league will be gunning for these guys as well, including the team across town. Getting a head start would not only prevent the Yankees from having to use unproven relievers to protect their July leads, it also increases their chances of going all the way.