Yankees: Five players who will help the team before the year is out

Relief is on the way

The Yankees have a manager who relies heavily on his bullpen. One could argue that Joe Girardi does so only because he has to, due to his starting staff that is unable to provide enough innings to negate the use of his bullpen.

Nevertheless, the result has been a taxed and tired bullpen that, no matter how you look at it, were largely responsible for the Yankees recent seven-game skid. Tyler Clippard is a train wreck all of a sudden, Adam Warren is due to return from the DL but who knows what happens after that, and Aroldis Chapman is being weaned back from his shoulder issues.

Ben Heller has been performing brilliantly at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and is, or should be, a likely call-up by the Yankees to fortify the bullpen.

Heller came over in the deal that also landed Justus Sheffield and Clint Frazier when the Yankees sent Andrew Miller to the Cleveland Indians. Oddly, in March of the same season, Heller had been assigned to the Indians by the Yankees, whereupon the Indians shipped him off to their Columbus Clippers. Go figure.

But in 2017, Heller is performing brilliantly. He’s appeared in 22 games, pitching 29 innings, while giving up only 18 hits and striking out 36 batters. Moreover, in the space of just one month, Heller’s ERA has regressed from a high of 3.72 to where it sits now at 2.48.

Opponents are hitting only .175 against him and he appears to have the flexibility that Girardi likes in a reliever with three saves in four opportunities.