Aaron Boone, Yankees once again couldn't escape the truth with Fernando Cruz reality

After another night in which Fernando Cruz struggled mightily, questions followed in the postgame. Speculation about a potential injury or fatigue was raised. Both were rejected by Cruz himself and manager Aaron Boone.

Less than 24 hours later, Cruz has hit the injured list with elbow discomfort, in what will be a crushing blow to the bullpen. The Yankees, continuing their scramble after getting zero pitching help at the trade deadline, signed Michael Fulmer to a major league deal and immediately promoted him.

Yeah, that should help. Nothing like washed veterans coming into the mix when the season is only getting more stressful and pressure-packed.

It's the Yankees' favorite thing to do. Lie about or fully downplay injuries, and look at members of the media and fans as if they are insane. They have yet to strike a balance between recklessness and precaution. It's full blown in either direction.

Explaining Fernando Cruz's struggles in comparison to Tommy Kahnle

For as much as Yankees fans love Cruz, whatever was happening over the last six weeks was as concerning as it gets. The veteran right-hander was incredible for the first half of the 2026 season, and then the wheels came off.

Some cracks started to show in June, but it was nothing major. Cruz was due for a few blemishes after how good he was — the man had a 1.84 ERA through June 9. It doesn't get much better than that for an arm of Cruz's caliber.

But some fans began to wonder when the usage of his splitter would become a worry, even before considering an injury. Much like former Yankee Tommy Kahnle, who heavily relied on his changeup until he no longer could (when he either ran out of gas or opposing lineups played the numbers game and guessed it every time), Cruz has seemingly fallen off a cliff under those same circumstances.

The right-hander is essentially a two-pitch reliever. His splitter is his claim to fame, and it's still holding up nicely with a .161 batting average and .288 slugging against. The problem, however, is his fastball. Cruz is throwing his splitter 51% of the time and his fastball 32% of the time. He's seen success with this sweeper, but the 14% rate there needs to increase in order to bridge this gap.

His fastball is getting tattooed (.311 batting average, .541 slug), and that's been pretty much the case all year. But now the splitter has fallen victim, getting rocked to the tune of .250/.688 in August, which has featured the majority of his woes.

Similarly, we saw what happened to Kahnle back in Sept. and Oct. of 2024. His changeup slowly but surely regressed and then his fastball suffered greatly. Kahnle managed to get past the Guardians and Royals in the playoffs (but walked six batters in in seven innings) before the Dodgers broke the dam in the World Series.

Kahnle was gassed and the Dodgers knew the approach. He was tagged for three earned runs across 1 2/3 innings (three total appearances). He unraveled in the two high-leverage situations he was asked to handle.

History repeated itself for Kahnle that next season with the Tigers. He was pristine in the first half and then fell off a cliff in the second. As for Cruz, he claimed he is healthy and Aaron Boone denied the possibility of fatigue (even though he has thrown 54 2/3 innings through Aug. 25), but everybody saw right through it.

The same thing happened with Cruz last year. He had a 3.00 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in the first half compared to a 4.80 ERA and 1.60 WHIP in the second half. Just like this year, he was dealing with an injury during the second half.

This time around? The Yankees claimed it was nothing. Until it was a big something. And honestly, it was probably a combination of the injury and the declining effectiveness of his offerings. The Yankees are now in a position where they need to figure it out fast because Cruz was supposed to be a main character in the high-leverage bullpen picture, and now he's in danger of missing the rest of the season.

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