Yankees: Chad Green is convincing Aaron Boone to never use him as an opener again

Remember when Yankees reliever Chad Green was an opener? Good times…

For a number of games, Yankees manager Aaron Boone has had to operate under the assumption that he’d be using an “opener” even though that officially wasn’t the case. James Paxton and JA Happ have already put forth a couple of disastrous starts, Masahiro Tanaka only went three innings in his debut, and Jonathan Loaisiga got a spot start on Thursday.

However, one thing we kind of learned from all this is that it’s probably not a great idea to use an established reliever as an opener, which is what the team did with Chad Green in 2019. The right-hander made 15 starts and 39 relief appearances, causing his ERA and WHIP to skyrocket compared to his previous campaigns.

The opener transition didn’t go well for the Yankees reliever, who finished last season with a 4.17 ERA and 1.23 WHIP, which was a massive regression considering the previous two years he logged a 2.50 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in 63 relief appearances, as well as a 1.83 ERA and 0.74 WHIP in 39 relief appearances (and one start).

Now that Green is back to his factory default settings in 2020, it’s time to never experiment with him as an opener again.

The man is back in his natural habitat and absolutely rocking. He’s thrown eight innings, has yet to give up a run, and owns 11 strikeouts to his name across those five appearances. His location has been spot on, and batters can’t touch him even when he’s throwing the ball right over the plate.

There’s no doubt he’s been the Yankees’ best reliever thus far when you consider how much he’s thrown and how much success he’s had.

https://twitter.com/ktsharp/status/1289377049035935746?s=20

We know, we’re only about 10% of the way through the season, so this hardly defines what Green will do the rest of the way. However, if the last three years and the start to 2020 are any indication, the 29-year-old should be fully entrenched in a late-inning role. There’s no question about it.

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