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Yankees Editorial: Should Branden Pinder Fail, Who’s Next?

By Antonio Mendes

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The New York Yankees recently placed relief pitcher Chris Martin on the 15-day DL. With that move they re-called Branden Pinder up from Triple-A Scranton. Pinder was in the Yankees bullpen once already this year. He’s pitched two innings and has only given up two hits. Chris Martin was struggling in his last couple of outings so a call up could’ve came in near future as it was, even without the injury, just in case.

The Yankees don’t have that many (realistic) options at the moment in Triple-A to call up for the bullpen. That isn’t saying they don’t have great depth in both Triple-A and Double-A, they easily do, the concern is rushing some of those players up. Pinder was the best option for now, but if for some reason he doesn’t get the job done for the time being, there are two other options they could turn to. Options who have much higher ceilings than Pinder does right now.

Jacob Lindgren

The most favorable option would be Jacob Lindgren. The 22 year old, 5 ft 11 in lefty has been dominating for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. He has 14.1 IP, in those innings only three earned runs. Adding to that, 20 strikeouts, 12 hits, seven walks. He seems likely to join the Yankees sometime in the near future, a little sooner than expected if he keeps pitching like he is now. While Pinder is the ideal choice at the moment, the only reason Lindgren wasn’t called up for Martin is one, because the Yanks’ want to give him a little more work in Scranton, and two Pinder has already been called up this season, and didn’t mess his chance up. Lindgren has only pitched in back to back games once this year for the RailRiders, and that only being last week. Give him a couple more back to back appearances, and he could be in Pinstripes very soon.

Jose Ramirez

The next option is Jose Ramirez who spent time with the Yankees last season. He has pitched 17.1 innings for Scranton this season, posting a 3.12 ERA. He’s given up six earned runs, and has been hit up just a little more than the Yankees would like for them to call him up. Something that he does have over Lindgren is age and experience, but once again the ceiling would be way higher for Lindgren, even though Ramirez’ is higher than Pinder’s. Something both Ramirez and Lindgren do struggle with is walks, and in the majors you can’t afford to get stuck with men on, especially being younger guys.

For now Pinder will do, but should he falter, Lindgren or Ramirez can be called up to back the situation.

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