Yankees: Should Zach Britton be the closer during the postseason?

After a shaky first outing in his return from the DL, All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman has looked much more like his old self over his last two outings. However, his fastball control is still shaky and his velocity is down which begs the questions of whether he should the be the Yankees closer during the postseason.

Following Monday night’s loss Rays manager, Kevin Cash commented that the Yankees bullpen is a really a collection full of closers because everyone they bring in has “closing, wipe out stuff.” This was after the Yankees imitated the Rays by employing an opener to start the game and seven other relievers to hold Tampa to one run and two hits in the Yanks 4-1 win.

After Jonathan Holder pitched a scoreless first inning and Stephen Tarpley pitched an impressive 1-2-3 second Sonny Gray followed them allowing the only run over two innings of work. From the fifth inning on the Yanks went to all their high leverage relievers to shut down and finish off the Rays offense.

In a surprising turn of events, Aroldis Chapman pitched the seventh inning with the Yankees up 4-1, throwing a scoreless inning, striking out two and walking one. Dellin Betances pitched a scoreless eighth and trade deadline acquisition Zach Britton closed things, striking out three to earn his third career save as a Yankee.

Britton was nasty in his inning of work and continued his dominance during the month of September. He started slowly with the Yanks in early August but he finally looks to be all the way back from offseason Achilles surgery. He’s been as good as advertised over these last four weeks and in his last 8.2 IP, he’s given up one unearned run, struck out nine, and only allowed three hits and one walk.

This was the Britton the Yankees were expecting to eventually show up and now that he’s firing on all cylinders it raises some questions about who should close heading into October. The Yankees know first hand from facing him over the years how unhittable Britton can be when he’s at his best. And as good as Chapman can be and was during the first-half there’s no denying that Britton looks like the better option to be the closer this postseason.

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If Chapman never got hurt in mid-August with knee tendinitis we probably wouldn’t even be having this conversation. But because the Yankees now have Britton also at their disposal, Aaron Boone and his coaching staff have to at least consider flip-flopping the roles of the two lefty All-Stars.

With Chapman still struggling to regain his triple-digit velocity and control of his fastball, the Yankees might be better off using him as part of the bridge to get to Britton. Since he only returned from the DL less than a week ago it might be too late for him to work his way back to a point where the Yankees would feel comfortable having him close instead of Britton.

In the playoffs, the last thing you want is your closer giving up free passes with the game on the line and in the second half, Chapman has walked 13 batters in only 9.2 IP. That’s a number that’s far too big and compared to Britton he’s only issued six walks in his last 22 IP.

This is obviously a unique set of circumstances for the Yankees because not too many teams have the options of choosing a closer between names like Chapman and Britton. When they’re both going well you could argue that their two of the top three closers in the game so on paper, you can’t really go wrong with either.

However, given how Chapman is still working his way back from the injury the Yankees are better off sticking with the hot hand in Britton at closer when the playoffs start a week from Wednesday. That’s not to say Chapman still won’t play a big role come October whether he’s closing or not. Make no mistake about it if the Yankees are going to make another deep run they need Chapman and the rest of the bullpen to be great.

In the later innings everyone in that pen is going to have a huge role to play and if they can all buy in and do what’s best for the team to win these Yankees are going to be tough to beat.