New York Yankees: Predicting the Opening Day bullpen

What will the Yankees bullpen look like on Opening Day? It’s time for some predictions.

For the better part of the last decade, the Yankees have featured one of the best bullpens in all of baseball. That should continue in 2020, whenever the regular season finally begins.

In recent years the Yankee bullpen has been loaded with dominant arms and most of them are still with the team. Key relievers David Robertson and Dellin Betances have left New York in free agency over the past two offseasons, but there’s still plenty of firepower in the pen.

Aroldis Chapman was re-signed shortly after the season ended to a 3-year, $48M dollar deal and is set to enter his fifth season as the Yankee closer. Zack Britton is back as the primary setup man for Chapman along with Tommy Kahnle and Adam Ottavino. All four relievers had terrific regular seasons in 2019 and were the main reason why the Yankee pen was among the best in the game yet again.

There aren’t many teams in baseball with this many high leverages relievers in their bullpen and that’s not even including Chad Green who is also back for the Yanks. Green had a miserable April last season and was sent down to Triple-A but after he was called back up he was just as good as he was during his breakout campaign in 2017.

We know all the names I mentioned so far are locks to be a part of the Yankees pen come Opening Day but who will join them? It’s likely the Yankees will carry 13 pitchers on their 26-man roster throughout the season so there are another three spots up for grabs.

Here’s who I think will fill those spots to begin the season…

Luis Cessa

Cessa spent all of last season in the Yankee pen and actually pitched pretty well. He was mostly used in a multi-inning role and had a few bad outings which really elevated his ERA but he was more consistent than he’s ever been at the big league level.

In 43 appearances he had a 4.11 ERA in 81 IP with 75 K’s and a WHIP of 1.30. By the end of the season, he was a valuable piece for the Yanks in middle relief and in the playoffs, he pitched very well tossing four scoreless innings and striking out four. Cessa entered last spring in danger of being cut because he was out of minor league options but this year he’s a safe bet to make the club.

Jonathan Loaisiga

Before spring training was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic Loaisiga looked like the heavy favorite to win the final spot in the Yankees starting rotation. However, now that the season is delayed there’s a good chance whenever play resumes James Paxton will be healthy and ready to return to the starting staff.

That would be a tough break for Loaisiga but he’ll still have a very important role to play for the Yanks out of the pen. With his electric stuff, he has the potential to dominate in a multi-inning role similar to how Green has since he made the transition from starter to reliever.

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He might get another chance at starting during the season, but if Paxton is healthy it’s a no-brainer to have him start the year in the pen. Of all the candidates who are in the mix to earn one of the final three spots, Loaaisiga is the most likely to become a huge weapon and one of the top relievers on the roster.

Jonathan Holder

This was a tough call, but I’m going with Holder for the final spot in the pen. After having a breakout season of his own in 2018 posting a 3.14 ERA in 66 innings last year was a disaster for the 26-year-old right-hander. He had a 6.31 ERA in 41.1 IP and spent the majority of the second half of the season stuck at Triple-A Scranton before he was shut down in August with shoulder inflammation.

It was a huge step back for Holder after he was one of the Yanks most reliable relievers two seasons ago. The last spot could end up going to Ben Heller or non-roster invitee Tyler Lyons, but I think Holder will have a solid bounce-back year under new pitching coach Matt Blake. He has the edge over Lyons because he’s already on the 40-man roster and he has much more experience than Heller who has barely ptiched since 2017 because of Tj surgery.

I’m not saying Holder is going to pitch as well as he did in 2018, but he’s not nearly as bad as he was in 2019 and I think he’ll prove that now that he’s healthy and his shoulder issue is behind him.