7 Yankees facing uncertain futures heading into 2022

6. Chad Green

Green has come under fire in recent years because of his inability to hold down the fort in pressure-filled situations. His clean stats might suggest otherwise (3.12 ERA and 0.88 WHIP in 2021), but his penchant for surrendering home runs and tremendously hard contact (he was in the bottom 7% of the league last year with an 11.1 barrel percentage) has taken away from his reliability.

Is this the Yankees’ fault? Partially. They stupidly used him as an opener in 2019 after back-to-back sterling campaigns as a reliever. Then he was overused in 2021 because of an ailing bullpen and a rotation that couldn’t particularly pitch deep into games (he logged a career high 83.2 innings across 67 games).

At the end of the day, Green throws a fastball and a curveball. Doesn’t really stymie the best hitters in the game. When you’re overusing a guy like that, of course you’re going to see unsavory results. Balancing the fact he’s a two-pitch guy and is entering his age-31 season, the Yankees will figure out a way to churn out in-house guys and use them in Green’s “fireman” role.

Nobody’s saying Green’s run in pinstripes was bad. A 3.17 ERA, 3.30 FIP, 1.01 WHIP and 478 strikeouts in 368.2 innings is damn good. But the fact he can price himself out of New York with a good 2022 or prove his regression is coming (or continuing) leaves the Yankees with little choice but to let him go, especially with the amount of prospect pitchers they have ready to rise in the ranks.