Yankees: Strengths, weaknesses and where they can improve
The historically ordinary bullpen
The Yankees’ relief corps had incredibly high expectations heading into the season, after a dominant Postseason that saw them outpitch every other opposing team’s bullpen. However, they have been underwhelming to start 2018 until some recent success, when they have begun to gain some traction.
If I told you at the beginning of the season, that the Yanks’ best reliever thus far would be Chasen Shreve, you would know that something had to have gone wrong. Of course, Shreve has held his opponents scoreless in 8.2 innings, so in fairness, he would be hard to beat and has earned the right to more high-leverage opportunities for this depleted bullpen.
Shreve isn’t the only reliever who’s been good so far, as Chad Green has shown 2017 was no fluke and Aroldis Chapman seems back to his dominant self. These two should continue to be critical pieces of the bullpen, with Green serving as the unit’s fireman and Chapman acting as the dominant final act.
Let’s start with the pitching woes of Tommy Kahnle, who has pitched to a 6.14 ERA before landing on the DL for shoulder and biceps tendinitis in his throwing arm.
Although an injury is never good, it at least provides a reason as to why Kahnle’s velocity has been substantially down this season, bottoming out at an average of 94.9 mph after throwing it to the tune of 97.8 mph in 2017. He’s also had some control issues as well, so hopefully, he heals up and comes back the same dominant reliever he was when the Yankees acquired him last year.
Dellin Betances is a continued work in progress, despite his consistent ability to strikeout batters at a very high rate. Although there does seem to be a slight diminish in his stuff (it could just be the cold weather), he still possesses a high-90s fastball with a buckling curveball that should dominate hitters.
I genuinely think Betances woes are mostly mental since struggling at the tail-end of 2017, as the Yankee boo birds may have gotten in his head. He’s a huge part of this bullpen, and the Yanks must continue to put him in position to succeed until he rebuilds his confidence and regains his form.
David Robertson has bounced back of late, even after his most recent bases-loaded scare against the Blue Jays Thursday night. The first time that happened to him this season, Justin Smoak took him deep for a grand-slam that led to one of the bullpen’s meltdowns in their opening series.
Regardless, Robertson needs to keep the recent momentum rolling and become the versatile relief ace he was after the Yankees acquired him last year.
Rookies Jonathan Holder and Domingo German have struggled so far, but you get the sense that the Yanks have more faith in German’s stuff than Holder’s, especially given German’s strong showing in the spring. Although the results aren’t there yet, I think they should continue testing him out as his stuff has shown flashes of being dominant.