With the Yankees reporting to Spring Training in about a month, it’s time we wrap this up. While the Yankees will continue to improve their depth at all positions through trades, free agency, and the like, what we have now is probably going to be it coming into Opening Day. So how does our bullpen really look?
Pretty Good Sparky. Pretty… Good
You gotta feel good about Aroldis Chapman, Zack Britton, and Adam Ottavino (even if they’re all under contract). With the maximum of 5 more relievers, the race is truly on to see who has the best bullpen in baseball.
Rounding out our pen is Tommy Kahnle, Chad Green, Luis Cessa, Johnathan Loaisiga, Johnathan Holder, Mike King, Stephen Tarpley, and Deivi Garcia to name just eight.
Where the Pen Can Improve
Our starters had a bit of trouble in going deep into games. Let’s look at some of the numbers:
Masahiro Tanaka, in 11 of his 32 games pitched last season, didn’t make it through 6 innings 11 times.
JA Happ, in 21 of his 31 games pitched, couldn’t get through 6 innings, averaging about 5.
In 16 of James Paxton’s 29 games, he couldn’t get out of 6 innings.
13 times out of 27 games, Domingo German couldn’t get through 6 innings.
CC started in 22 games. He couldn’t get through 6 innings 16 times.
In other words, that’s about 332 extra innings the bullpen had to pitch last year. Most guys in the pen the Yankees leaned on were at best one-inning guys.
With the Yankees noted history of treating pitchers with kid gloves (they were talking about shutting down Severino in 2017, shut down Phil Hughes in 2010, and let’s not forget how ineffective Jobba Chamberlain became due to the Jobba rules), they need long relievers. Losing Nestor Cortes Jr., however ineffective he may have been, hurt. But, saving at least one spot in the pen to bring Jordan Montgomery up to speed as a pitcher, or to see just what Deivi Garcia can do, is the best thing for the Yankees this season. They need a long man out of the pen. Almost as badly as they needed Gerrit Cole.