James Pazos is Critical to the Yankees Bullpen Success in 2016

During his major league cup of coffee, southpaw reliever James Pazos was very impressive. In 11 games, he tossed a total of 5.0 innings out of the New York Yankees bullpen while striking out three and recording an ERA of 0.00.

He was even so good that he was deemed “untouchable” at the MLB Trade Deadline along with top Yankees prospects Luis Severino, Greg Bird and Jorge Mateo nearly two months before he threw his major league pitch!

And now, the 24-year old Pazos who was originally drafted in the 13th round of the 2012 MLB Amateur Draft by the New York Yankees out of the University of San Diego has a chance to be one of the most important pieces to the 2016 bullpen.

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With the back end of the Yankees bullpen locked and loaded with the power trio of Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman, the front-end still remains as mystery. And with their injury riddled pitching staff and the uncertainty from their starting rotation, the front-end of the bullpen will be heavily relied upon to get the ball from the starters to their big three relievers.

That said, the Yankees will essentially host an open tryout starting on Wednesday in the Yankees first spring training game against the Detroit Tigers to see which relievers will step up and hop on the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders express and fill the front-end of the Yankees rotation.

MLB veterans on spring training invites such as Kirby Yates, Anthony Swarzak and Tyler Olson are set to complete with prospects relievers like Jacob Lindgren, Nick Rumbelow and of course James Pazos.

If Pazos is ready to take the leap into the major leagues full-time, he’ll have to prove in spring training that his slider is MLB ready and that he has better control of his fastball. Keep in mind he walked three batters and also surrendered 3 hits in a total of just major league innings 5.o innings.

What do you think Yankee fans? Is James Pazos ready to contribute to the 2016 Yankees bullpen? Let us know in the comments below.