Yankees: Who can internally fill the remaining bullpen openings?

Luis Cessa and Domingo German are bunched together for only one reason: either one could serve as the long-man in the bullpen. It would be very surprising if both were in the majors together given their current roles within the organization. The logical approach is one serving as the long-man with the big league club, while the other is starting in Triple-A.

The Yankees have other options to serve in this role, such as Chance Adams and Jonathan Loaisiga, but both could use some more development in Scranton.

Cessa made 16 appearances for the Yankees in 2018, starting in five of those contests. Overall, he compiled a 5.24 ERA with a 3.00 K/BB ratio in only 44.2 innings pitched. As a starter, he went 1-4 with a 6.50 ERA in 18.0 IP with a 1.86 K/BB %. In relief, his numbers weren’t as bad with a 4.39 ERA in 26.2 IP with a  4.33 K/BB % The one major difference between the splits was Cessa’s strikeout-to-walk ratio. However, this is way too small of a sample size to make an argument that he should remain a starter.

Personally, the Yankees should give Cessa the “Chad Green” treatment and convert him into a full-time reliever. Starting clearly hasn’t gone as planned for either Cessa or the Yankees during his four years with the organization. But if you let Cessa air-out fastballs along with his secondary pitches for an inning or two, we might have something there. It’s worth a shot.

German, on the other hand, has the pure stuff to remain a starter. Although his numbers from this past season weren’t spectacular by any means, the 26-year old righty made some big starts for the Yankees when they were in need of arms. You have to remember, German miss a significant amount of development time after undergoing Tommy John Surgery on his right elbow in 2015.

In 21 games (14 games started), German went 2-6 with a 5.57 ERA. In 85.2 innings pitched, the righty allowed 33 walks and struck out 102 batters. In order for German to solidify himself on the Major League roster, he must improve his walk rate.

Although his numbers weren’t earth-shattering by any means, having a full year under his belt in the big leagues could pay dividends for German. The high-strikeout numbers in limited action prove just that.