Jonathan Loaisiga will join a growing list of Yankees‘ relievers who are on rehab assignments, as he’ll head to Single-A on Saturday to get himself ready to rejoin the big league club. The right-hander underwent elbow surgery after tearing his UCL in an outing against the Diamondbacks last season, and he could be about a month away from providing some high-leverage innings. Also working back from the IL are Clayton Beeter and Tyler Matzek, with Jake Cousins not being too far away from a rehab assignment.
With the Yankees getting some power arms back in the coming weeks, they are getting pitchers who attack critical flaws that this pitching staff has dealt with all season, putting even less stress on a rotation that hasn’t looked sharp.
The Yankees Could Have a New-Look Bullpen In the Next Few Weeks
While the rotation is the area of concern right now, the Yankees’ bullpen can provide some semblance of a solution for the time being. They’re going to get some key pieces back in the coming weeks, and that could provide the pitching staff with some power arms that can shorten starts from underperforming rotation members or lock down big leads. Tyler Matzek is the first name who could return from the IL, as he has an opt-out in his contract at the end of April that can only be voided if he’s added to the Major League roster.
Through five appearances on this rehab assignment, Tyler Matzek has a 3.18 ERA with a 28% strikeout rate, with his fastball velocity being back to where it was before his elbow surgery in 2022. He’s also flashed a sinker that he mentioned working on during the offseason, getting good movement on that pitch while having a similar release point to his four-seam fastball. The Yankees have seemed to push Matzek away from being as reliant on his four-seamer as he has been in recent seasons, dropping the usage of that pitch to around 59% compared to the 67% usage rate he had last season.
From 2020-2024, Matzek had a 3.40 ERA and 26.9% K% as a reliever with the Atlanta Braves, but he did have some command issues as he walked 12.8% of batters faced over that window. His ability to miss bats and limit damage contact makes him a valuable late-game weapon, and the success he’s had in the postseason could provide some added confidence that big moments in New York won’t be too much to handle. He’s not the only reliever who has looked sharp in their rehab outings, as Clayton Beeter was dominant in his first appearance of the 2025 season.
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Clayton Beeter averaged 97 MPH on his fastball in an outing for the first time in his pro career, and that’s exactly what the Yankees need in their bullpen right now. The highest average fastball velocity in the bullpen belongs to Ian Hamilton at 94.3 MPH on his four-seamer, and while you don’t need velocity if you have an elite secondary, Beeter has both dominant velocity and a really good secondary pitch. His slider was averaging more vertical drop in this outing than it usually does, as it has what’s referred to as a ‘deathball’ shape, creating a sharp drop while not moving much laterally.
It’s a platoon-neutral pitch that pairs well with a fastball like Clayton Beeter’s, and if he can keep locating those two pitches well, there’s not much stopping him from racking up strikeouts. We also saw Beeter mix in three changeups, and the shape of that pitch was good in that minuscule sample size, which is encouraging. The Yankees are hoping to get another flamethrower back soon, as Jonathan Loaisiga is set to begin a rehab assignment in Single-A on Saturday, giving the bullpen another closer option who can shut down the best hitters in the game.
Even if Clayton Beeter sat around 97 MPH on his fastball, he likely would still fall short of the velocity that Jonathan Loaisiga is capable of displaying when he’s on. The right-hander has an explosive sinker that can sit around 99 MPH with tons of movement, and it’s one of the best damage prevention pitches in the sport. Loaisiga’s sinker allows him to avoid barrels at an unmatched rate, and if the Yankees can get him to throw his secondaries more in two-strike counts, the K% could climb back up.
In his 2021 breakout campaign, Jonathan Loaisiga used his sinker 54.9% of the time compared to the > 60% usage rates we’ve seen in his last three seasons. Part of it could be a lack of trust in those pitches, knowing that his sinker is good to get a soft groundball whenever he locates it in the zone. Despite a reduction in K%, Loaisiga still has a 3.62 ERA from 2022-2024, and it’s heavily inflated by one bad stretch during the 2022 season. He was also dominant in his lone playoff run during that stretch, appearing in six games with 9.1 innings pitched and just one run allowed.
With an increase in curveball and changeup usage, we could see Jonathan Loaisiga get some of those strikeouts back while maintaining high groundball rates, making him a truly elite reliever again. If he doesn’t make those adjustments, he’ll profile more like Tim Hill, which is the furthest thing from an insult given how effective he’s been in high-leverage situations since joining the Yankees in 2024. The bullpen isn’t bad right now, but they could get even deadlier in the coming weeks, and that would create a more lethal and dynamic pitching staff as they work around a bad rotation.