Yankees Reliever Chasen Shreve Looking to Rebound in 2016

Last January the Yankees traded former top prospect Manny Banuelos to the Atlanta Braves for David Carpenter and Chasen Shreve.

While David Carpenter didn’t quite pan out, it looked like the Yankees acquired a gem in rookie southpaw Chasen Shreve.

For a majority of the 2015 season, Chasen Shreve was one of the best shutdown relievers in the american league, posting a 1.86 ERA and holding opposing hitters to a .177 batting average into the first week of September.

However, in what became one of the biggest mysteries of the season, Chasen Shreve did a complete 180 and turned into the equivalent of a batting practice pitcher down the stretch. Over his final nine appearances, the 25-year old southpaw served up 22 hits to the 36 batters he faced, including four home runs. After allowing just seven runs over his first 50 appearances, Shreve recorded a sky-high 16.20 ERA and a 1.594 OPS against from September 5th on.

Despite the bullpen addition of Aroldis Chapman and the presence of Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances, it’s still important that the Yankees figure out what happened to Shreve and quickly reverse his fortunes before the start of the season. Sure the back-end of their bullpen is nasty, but the Yankees undoubtedly have one of the most injury-prone pitching staffs in all of baseball, so they’ll need guys like Chasen Shreve to step up and cover a lot of innings in middle-relief this season before getting the ball to their power trio late in ball games.

Also, as of yesterday it looks as if Aroldis Chapman is going to miss some time at the start of the season due to his off-season domestic violence issues. Factor that into the departure of Adam Warren and Justin Wilson via trade, and all of a sudden the workload on Yankees relievers significantly increases.

Unfortunately, the Yankees were forced to rush young relievers to the majors such as Jacob Lindgren, Branden Pinder, Nick Goody and Nick Rumbelow, and because of their inexperience, none of the aforementioned pitchers managed to hold onto a bullpen spot, opening up a revolving door of Yankee relievers all-season long.

The only young reliever with an appealing track record is Chasen Shreve and his 1.64 career ERA over his first 65 major league appearances…but from games 66 to 74, not so much.

The good news is Chasen Shreve’s problem appears fixable.

According to veteran backstop Brian McCann, Chasen Shreve was tipping his pitches.

"“As a hitter, I could have picked it up,” Brian McCann told Joel Sherman of the New York Post. “It is 100 percent fixable. Let’s not forget this guy was having an unbelievable season.”"

If the Yankees manage to fix Chasen Shreve, their bullpen sets up so much better. If Chasen Shreve can remain consistent and handle the seventh inning, it’ll allow Joe Girard to use two of his three power arms to take care of the eighth and ninth inning, with the big advantage of always keeping one of them fresh for the next day.

If not, it’ll probably be another long year of Yankees relievers constantly being called up and sent down until the Yankees can find a reliable arm to handle middle relief.

Next: Will James Kaprielian Pitch for the Yankees in 2016

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