Ryan Garcia
One of the advantages to carrying four starters for the start of a season is having an extra reliever, but the Yankees have effectively just ran with 12 pitchers instead of 13.
Despite having some fairly lopsided victories and relatively low-leverage innings, Aaron Boone has never signaled for Cade Winquest to come out of the bullpen, which seems to be tied to their lack of faith in him.
New York cut Osvaldo Bido, optioned Yerry De Los Santos, and kept Luis Gil out of the rotation to…keep a pitcher who they had no plans of using in 95% of baseball situations?
With a cut of Winquest seeming inevitable when Luis Gil returns when the Yankees host the Rays over the weekend, it’s time to pull the plug and actually carry a ninth reliever that the team can use.
READ MORE: The Yankees might need to start worrying about Jose Caballero
If Cade Winquest Is Sitting Around, the Yankees Can’t Keep Rostering Him
I had high hopes for Cade Winquest entering the season, I hoped his 94-96 MPH fastball would increase in velocity if thrown into a contracted role as a reliever, but that didn’t happen.
Furthermore, his excellent splitter from his MiLB days didn’t get much usage in Spring Training, and his overall execution left a lot to be desired.
Despite that poor Spring Training, the Yankees exuded confidence that this bullpen could benefit from Winquest’s presence, but manager Aaron Boone has showed the world what the organization really thinks.
The Yankees never use Winquest in any situation, which tells you not only do they not trust him, but they have no interest in figuring out what he can be since he has until Luis Gil returns on April 10th to prove himself.
A name who they loved from Spring Training was Yovanny Cruz, who has displayed 100 MPH velocity with a disgusting slider that could provide far more utility in a bullpen role than Winquest can right now.
In three outings with the Triple-A RailRiders, Cruz has seven strikeouts with one walk and two hit batsmen, not allowing a single run and averaging 98-100 MPH on the fastball.
His aforementioned breaking ball is a bullet-spinning slider with sharp dropping action to pair with his power heater, and while it could just be a quick stop in the Bronx, he could at least provide some interesting upside.
Cade Winquest being sent back to the Cardinals would open up a 40-man roster spot anyways, so they don’t have to worry about clearing up a spot for Cruz in this scenario.
If they’d prefer to utilize that call-up for when the right-hander can get an extended look, going to Yerry De Los Santos would make plenty of sense as well.
You won’t mistake Yerry De Los Santos for Mariano Rivera on the mound, but he was an effective reliever for the Yankees last season who could induce soft grounders and keep runs off the board.
With multi-inning versatility as well, De Los Santos is a capable arm to burn for an outing or two in this upcoming series against the Athletics before you bring up Luis Gil and send him back to Scranton.
There is quite literally zero value or benefit to carrying nine relievers if the ninth reliever is not going to get any run at all, and the Yankees are going to lose baseball games by not using the extra spot to their advantage.
It may not be now, but at some point in May, June, or July the Yankees will look at the inning counts for some of their more relied-upon relievers and try to stay away from them for a couple of outings.
Brian Cashman didn’t really make the wisest decision here by rostering a guy that the organization does not trust at all and they should correct it before an explosive offense that’s started to wake up crawls into the Bronx.
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