Alexander Wilson
Camilo Doval gave the Yankees another reminder Thursday that stuff and trust are not the same thing.
Andrew Benintendi’s pinch-hit grand slam in the eighth inning turned a tight game into a 5-1 loss, and the inning carried the exact kind of deadline warning the Yankees cannot ignore. A contender can survive a bad relief appearance in June. It gets much harder to survive uncertainty when the same arm keeps drifting into leverage without clean answers.
I understand the appeal with Doval. The fastball jumps, the cutter has life, and the pure velocity gives the Yankees something every bullpen wants. The issue is whether Aaron Boone can hand him the ball in the seventh or eighth inning and feel like the game is not about to turn sideways.
The Yankees need more than velocity
Doval has a 5.08 ERA across 28.1 innings, with five homers allowed, 26 strikeouts, five walks, and a 1.16 WHIP. The walk number is actually manageable. The damage is the problem.
When contact against a power reliever keeps turning into impact contact, the conversation changes. The Yankees do not need Doval to be perfect. They need him to stop giving up the kind of swing that changes an entire night.
July is where the conversation gets real. David Bednar cannot be the only answer. Brent Headrick has been a useful find, and the Yankees have internal arms they like, but October bullpens are built on redundancy. One shaky bridge can sink the whole plan.
The deadline angle is obvious
This does not mean Doval should disappear from the trust tree tomorrow. It means the Yankees need to be honest about what he is right now: a power arm with a crap ton of volatility.
The front office should still explore high-end relief help, even if the price is annoying. Waiting for every current arm to settle into a perfect role is not a plan, it is hope dressed up as patience.
Doval can still help this team. He just cannot be the only reason the Yankees avoid paying for another leverage arm.
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