Ryan Garcia
No one would disagree with having concerns about the Yankees’ bullpen, its the same group as last year minus Devin Williams and Luke Weaver.
This group wasn’t very reliable even when they made their deadline additions with David Bednar, Camilo Doval, and Jake Bird being added in less than 24 hours.
Bird was demoted after just three outings with the team and Doval pitched to a 4.82 ERA in 22 appearances after the deadline, these reinforcements didn’t only fail to stabilize this group, but they also had questions entering 2026.
Its too soon to say those questions are completely wiped away, but the nasty pitches that we saw this week from the bullpen inspires some confidence in the vision Brian Cashman had for this group.
The Yankees Got a Filthy First Impression From Questionable Bullpen
The Yankees are going to key in on their six primary relievers throughout the first half to see which arms can rise to the top and which arms will fall to the wayside when Brian Cashman hunts upgrades in July.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a weaklink based on this first series, where the Yankees saw various pitchers throwing absolutely disgusting pitches to supress the Giants’ offense.
Jake Bird stood out with his nasty sweeping slider with tons of lateral break and tight spin which creates some hideous swings out of the zone.
New York identified him as a breakout candidate due to his excellent Stuff+ scores (116) with good K-BB% numbers from last season, and they continued to signal that they believed in him throughout the offseason.
He’s throwing a new four-seamer to help keep hitters off-balance and we saw him use it last night as it was his most-used pitch even in a scenario where he was facing almost exclusively right-handed hitters.
In his two appearances he’s picked up three strikeouts without issuing a free pass, and if the Yankees can get his ERA to match his underlying numbers from last season, he could be a big weapon for this group.
Another pitcher throwing a new pitch is Tim Hill, showing that an old dog can learn new tricks as he broke out a slider during Spring Training that he’s carried into the regular season.
Expect Hill to still heavily lean on his sinker, but this slider changes eye levels for hitters and keeps them from just sitting on his nasty fastball.
This is still the soft-tossing lefty who would be thrilled to see 90 MPH on the radar gun, but with that new wrinkle to his game we might see some better results from last season where righties crushed him.
Camilo Doval’s sinker is even nastier this season, which I highlighted in an article yesterday that you can check out, and if he’s looking right the Yankees could have an All-Star reliever setting up for David Bednar.
Brent Headrick added some scoreless appearances as well against the Giants, and he’s an arm I’m very excited about after he struck out 32.6% of batters faced in limited work last season.
He’s also throwing a new pitch, adding a sinker to his mix to help keep lefties off of his four-seamer which they crushed last season, and it’s the theme of this bullpen; adding new pitches.
I raved about Desi Druschel returning as the Assistant Pitching Coach after moving across the pond to Queens, and the Yankees’ bullpen has seen multiple tweaks in shapes and movement.
Druschel was largely credited for his work with understanding seam-shifted movement and pitch design, which the Yankees have done an excellent job with this offseason.
Whether its Luis Gil rapidly adding a sinker, Cam Schlittler developing a Corbin Burnes-like cutter, or Camilo Doval throwing a wicked sinker that hitters stand no chance against, his impact has already been felt.
These tweaks, changes, and improvements do not guarantee that the Yankees’ bullpen will be good in 2026, but the early data indicates that their raw stuff won’t be the issue.
If they can command the ball remotely well, this bullpen might be one of the best in baseball.
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