Justin Wilson did not end his second tenure with the Yankees on a good note, being unceremoniously salary dumped onto the Reds alongside Luis Cessa at the 2021 trade deadline.
He’s bounced around the league since then but landed on his feet with the Red Sox where he served as one of their best set-up men to fellow southpaw Aroldis Chapman.
A high-whiff reliever who has a good fastball and strong secondary pitches, Wilson could be the right kind of addition for a bullpen that is lacking some certainty at the very top.
While his older age and unpleasant memories in 2021 could be deterrents I don’t believe beggars can be choosers, and this bullpen has a Justin Wilson-sized hole in it right now.
READ MORE: Grading the Yankees’ calculated ‘run it back’ offseason strategy so far
Why Justin Wilson Makes A Lot of Sense For the Yankees
Justin Wilson struck out 27.5% of batters faced last season as he sported a 3.35 ERA and 2.95 FIP across 61 appearances for the Boston Red Sox.
His swing-and-miss stuff is excellent, the fastball has good riding action at the top of the zone which allowed him to generate a 34.6% Whiff% on that pitch.
Wilson also has a slider, cutter, and splitter, with that breaking ball being his best pitch in terms of SLG% and wOBA last season, it’s a dropping breaking ball with good velocity that plays well off of his fastball.
One incredibly desirable trait here is the 91st Percentile Whiff%, the Yankees lost two high-whiff pitchers in Luke Weaver and Devin Williams without doing anything of note to replace them.
Brian Cashman discussed how the trade deadline acquisitions they made in July would improve the bullpen over the course of the 2026 season since they would have these arms for a full season.
I think the organization needs to move away from that settling mindset, this is a roster capable of winning the American League and should be treated as such.
Adding a key piece to this bullpen should be near the top of their priority list as there aren’t many safe names to ask Aaron Boone to put into a big game right now.
While I wouldn’t expect the Yankees to have the closer issues that Devin Williams provided last year, we said the same thing about the multi-time All-Star entering the 2025 season.
Bullpens are volatile, it’s how last year’s group loaded with excellent names ended up crashing in burning at various points of the season.
Justin Wilson is far from the best reliever in the game, but having him slot in-between Camilo Doval and Fernando Cruz in a set-up role would be key.
Suddenly you feel more confident about late-game situations and can be more confident that your project relievers won’t be asked to do more than they’re supposed to earlier in the season.
The Yankees have faith in their internal pitching development, but they cannot be so reliant to the point that they’re rolling out an understaffed bullpen.
It’s time to try and make a big push to win the American League East, not time to sit back and hope that a group of highly suspect relievers can provide them enough until the July deadline comes around.
More about:New York Yankees
