3 Yankees who won’t make Opening Day roster but will contribute a ton in 2021

2. Lucas Luetge

Ohh, you’ve heard of Lucas Luetge by now. If you haven’t, then you’ve been watching zero spring training action.

Luetge is the lefty the Yankees signed early in the offseason and he (unsurprisingly) flew under the radar because he hasn’t pitched in the bigs since 2015. He also missed all of 2018 and 2020, but the Bombers are always looking for lefties, so they took a chance on the 33-year-old.

And that minor-league deal is paying off better than any other! So far this spring, Luetge has yet to give up a run in his five innings of relief. Across those frames, he’s allowed two hits and one walk while striking out 11. Absolutely untouchable.

But, like we said, the bullpen is probably settled, and the Yankees will likely go with a four-man bench that features Brett Gardner, Tyler Wade, Kyle Higashioka and Jay Bruce. Luetge’s efforts will not go unnoticed, though.

He’ll be stashed at Triple-A and will no doubt see major league action throughout the year, especially while Britton is on the shelf for the first three months of the season. The Yankees might want to have more than one lefty readily available at times through June, so he’ll be getting more chances to prove himself. You never know! Someone in the ‘pen can falter early on, lose their job, and then Luetge gets a shot.

Manager Aaron Boone said Luetge has turned a lot of heads and he’ll hopefully continue to do so at various points this year.