New York Yankees Report Card: Grading the Return of Andrew Bailey

Hidden in the shadow of the five Yankee home runs and their 13-run frenzy, recent September call up and New Jersey native Andrew Bailey made his long anticipated return to the major leagues for the New York Yankees on Wednesday night in the seventh inning at Fenway Park.

For those of you who don’t remember, Bailey was a former rookie of the year and a former All-Star reliever for the Oakland Athletics before being trading to the Red Sox in 2011. Unfortunately, Bailey tore his labrum with the Red Sox, and underwent major shoulder surgery in 2013. The Yankees signed him as a reclamation project in 2014, and after one set-back after another over the course of the past two years, Bailey was finally deemed healthy enough to make his major league return.

The last time he pitched on a major league mound was on July 12, 2013.

Unfortunately, Bailey’s return wasn’t all that spectacular. He lasted just one third of an inning, walking two batters, allowing one hit and an earned run before being replaced by Justin Wilson.

Bailey threw a total of 22 pitches, 12 of which were strikes. He obviously had some trouble locating the strike zone throughout. As a matter of fact, according to fan graphs, despite his average fastball velocity sitting at 92.8 mph, it was only valued at -1.0. To make matters worse, his off-speed stuff wasn’t all that great either. His vertical curveball movement was a -5.8, which is going to get creamed at the major league level when it’s sitting at an average velocity of 75.9 mph.

Overall, Bailey earned an overall grade of a C+ on his report card for his major league return.

But don’t get me wrong, the fact that Bailey was even standing on a major league mound last night after everything he’s been through is an amazing feat in and of itself. His battle with adversity undoubtedly earns the grade of an A+.

Hopefully last night’s performance was him just working out the kinks and clearing off the rust. I’m hoping Bailey can find some sort of consistency and stick with the big league club. Everyone loves an underdog, especially when it’s a local kid!

With the Yankees off today, it’s safe to assume that we’ll see Andrew Bailey back in action at some point against the Tampa Bay Rays in the Bronx during their upcoming three game series!

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