Aaron Boone's comments telegraph who will win Yankees' final bullpen spot

The New York Yankees entered spring training with most of their roster questions already answered, but the one battle that jumped out as being very unsettled was the competition for the final two spots in the bullpen.

A problem area for the Yankees last season, the club took an addition by subtraction approach, hoping that the losses of Devin Williams and Luke Weaver (both to the crosstown Mets) would allow for more space for last year's trade deadline acquisitions and some young arms added over the winter to flourish.

Seemingly, four arms — Jake Bird, Cade Winquest, Angel Chivilli, and Brent Headrick — were competing for two spots. Early on, it appeared that they favored Bird for one of the spots, with Matt Blake heaping praise on the right-hander. Bird has mostly impressed over six innings of work, though he's hiccuped lately and owns a 4.50 ERA.

Winquest has struggled with walks and homers, posting a 5.68 ERA. Chivilli has been downright terrible with a 14.29 ERA and should be out of the running by now. Meanwhile, Aaron Boone can't stop heaping praise on Headrick.

Per Greg Joyce of the New York Post, Boone said, "I'm pretty high on him," when asked about Headrick at the end of February. Now, Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News is reporting that Boone is a big fan of Headrick, with the skipper saying, "I think he’s legit.”

Yankees believe they've built a monster in Brent Headrick since Twins arrival

Headrick came to the Yankees via a waiver claim in February of 2025. The former Minnesota Twin had primarily worked as a starter in the minors and a reliever in his brief major league stints before converting to relief full-time in his first season in pinstripes.

The six-foot-six lefty made 17 big league appearances and tossed 23 innings for New York in 2025 and was mostly effective. He posted a 3.13 ERA with a 32.6% strikeout rate and a 7.6% walk rate, though he struggled to maintain his velocity at times and was a bit too homer-prone.

So far this spring, Headrick has flashed that same strikeout stuff, with nine punchouts against no walks in 4 2/3 innings of work. That's helped him to a 3.86 ERA in the warmup period.

If Headrick is, in fact, included in the Opening Day pen, he'll represent the third lefty New York would carry alongside Tim Hill and Ryan Yarbrough, but he'd be a much different flavor than either of those veteran southpaws.

Hill gets by with a funky delivery and diving sinker that generates a ton of groundballs. Yarbrough is a junkballer whose best quality is his ability to eat innings, either as a starter or reliever. Headrick, on the other hand, brings the power and the Ks. He's regularly sat between 94 and 96 miles per hour, which is a welcome change from the left side.

It's clear that he's in Boone's good graces, and he should be. Out of all the competitors, he's pitched the best, and he's the only one of the four who could provide something different from what the Yankees already have. It sure seems like he'll snag the last bullpen job, and if he does, it will be the right call.