Yankees Editorial: Did the Yankees Pick The Wrong Time to Load Up on Southpaw Relievers?

The New York Yankees and their management brass believe they have pieced together their best and most reliable crop of left handed relievers in years – if not ever.

As recent history illustrates, most Yankees fans would say it’s about damn time, or that Brian Cashman and co. are delusional.

Mike Stanton bolted across town and joined the New York Mets after the culmination of the 2002 season after six stellar seasons as Mariano Rivera‘s left-handed setup man. Since then, the Yankees failed to spend wisely in many areas of their roster, including the southpaw reliever department.

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As Joel Sherman of the New York Post was so kind to point out, from Mike Stanton’s exit through the 2014 season, the Yankees had signed a total six left-handed relievers to multi-year contracts and one (Gabe White) to a one-year contract with a second year player option.

White, Chris Hammond, Felix Heredia and Matt Thornton all never made it to their second year in the deal, as each of which were traded. However, it is important to note that Felix Heredia was dealt to the Mets in return for Mike Stanton following the 2004 campaign, which sort of makes him a wash. The Yankees assumed the final season ($4 million) of Stanton’s three-year deal with Mets, but later and released him on July 1, 2005 while he had a 7.07 ERA.

Next up, we have Mike Myers, who was released during the second year of his two-year deal. The Yankees overreacted to the Red Sox lefty-handed additions of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez at the tail end of 2010 season, and decided to overpay Rafael Soriano as a setup man (three years/$35 million) and the injury prone Pedro Feliciano (two-year/$7.5 million) who eventually never pitched an inning for the Yankees because of his shoulder. To Soriano’s credit, he did step up in 2012 when Mariano Rivera went down to injury, recording 42 saves and a 2.26 ERA.

The largest contract the Yankees ever shelled out to a left-handed reliever prior to this off-season was three years/ $12 million for the unforgettable Damaso Marte. For many general managers, his regular season statistics during that time of 51 appearances, 31 innings pitched, and a sky-high 6.39 ERA after not pitching at all in 2011 would be viewed as a substantial waste of money. But not Brian Cashman.

The 14 batters Marte faced in the 2009 postseason in which he gave up just two singles, no walks and recorded five strikeouts as a significant contributor to their 2009 World Series might just be enough to outweigh his hefty price tag.

When all is said and done, over the last twelve seasons, Boone Logan, now a member of the Colorado Rockies, probably has been the Yankees best southpaw reliever. Why Brian Cashman didn’t re-sign him still remains one of the biggest question marks left unanswered.

As you can see, the Yankees have lacked anything but success from the left-side of their bullpen. Their secret for many years was to have serviceable lefties while relying on superb righties in David Robertson, Rivera and now Dellin Betances.

However, despite their recent success, the 2015 off-season will be remembered as the year the Yankees went all-in on southpaw relievers. They let David ‘Houdini’ Robertson walk to the White Sox, electing to give Andrew Miller a four-years/$36 million contract instead. If they elect to let Betances close out games for the Yankees in the ninth, Miller will one-up Soriano as the highest-paid setup man in baseball history.

Non the less, the Yankees should feel good about both Miller and Betances when they’re on the mound against lefty batters. Among reliever with at least 60 innings pitched last season, Betances was third in the majors with a .442 OPS against lefties while Miller was fourth at .456.

The Yankees shipped back-up catheter Francisco Cervilli to the Pirates and former prized prospect turned reclamation project Manny Banuelos to the Braves to add left-handed relievers Chasen Shreve and Justin Wilson. They also used their top pick (55th overall) last June in the First-Year Player Draft to draft left-handed pitcher Jacob Lindgren out of Mississippi State, who struck out 48 batters in 24.2 innings across four minor league levels last season.

What I like particularly about Miller, Lindgren, Wilson and Shreve is that they are not left-handed specialists like Logan was.

Instead, they can pitch full innings, which is significantly important given the current state of the Yankees starting staff. One thing to monitor however, is whether or not Wilson and Shreve can translate their success from the National League over to the American League.

According to Sherman however,

"“This might be the worst time in recent history to have strong lefty relievers in the AL East. The only team with a predominantly lefty lineup is the Yankees. Consider that four lefty swingers qualified for the batting title and had better than even a .720 OPS last year and play currently for an AL East team. Three are Yankees — Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner and Garrett Jones. The other is Boston’s David Ortiz. The Rays have four hitters who excelled against righties last year — Kevin Kiermaier, Juan Francisco, John Jaso and James Loney — who you might want to bring in a lefty against to subdue or force a pinch hitter to be used. But there is no one in that group who is a terrifying lefty hitter like Ortiz and the rest of the AL East non-Yankees lineups lean heavily right-handed for their power, unless Baltimore gets a rebound from Chris Davis."

So, yes the New York Yankees might have finally solved their deficiency in left-handed pitching out of the bullpen – at the wrong time. What do you think Yankees fans? Let us know in the comments below.

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