Yankees fans will be nauseated by much-maligned former reliever's resurgence

As we sit here turning over every stone looking for a solution to the issues that plague the New York Yankees' bullpen, it looks as if the club let a perfect fit walk out the door.

You see, when the Yankees declined Jonathan Loaisiga's $5 million option at the beginning of November, no one had any qualms about the decision. Now, he seems to have returned to the 2021 form that made him so hard to quit for New York.

Loaisiga would go on to sign a minor league deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks and make the team out of spring training. Given the way the last few years had played out, one would rightly assume that the D-backs were setting themselves up for a world of pain. Instead, Loaisiga has been lights out, posting a 2.17 ERA over 40 appearances and 37 1/3 innings in the first half.

The most striking development is that after serving up meatball after meatball last year in the Bronx with a 2.12 HR/9, he's been nearly invincible when it comes to keeping the ball in the yard, posting a 0.24 HR/9.

Former Yankees arsonist Jonathan Loaisiga looks like he's made a real turnaround with the Diamondbacks

The similarities between what Loaisiga is doing now and what he did in 2021 are striking. That year, a then-26-year-old Loaisiga looked like a foundational bullpen building block. That year, the Nicaraguan native posted a 2.17 ERA that is identical to what he owns today.

Loaisiga did that by virtue of maintaining a healthy groundball rate and limiting damage via walks and home runs. In 2021, he posted a 60.9% ground ball rate, a 0.38 HR/9, and 2.04 BB/9. This year, his ground ball rate is 53.3%, and his BB/9 is 1.93.

Under the hood, it seems like what he's doing is legitimate. There's a whole lot of red on his Baseball Savant page. His 31.8% hard-hit rate is an 87th percentile performance. His 86.1 miles per hour average exit velocity is good for a 91st percentile mark. The 35.6% chase rate he has recorded ranks in the 92nd percentile. The 3.6% barrel rate he's allowed is minuscule, ranking in the 95th percentile.

His velocity is up a decent amount as well. Last season, Loaisiga averaged 96.8 miles per hour on his fastball. Now it's coming in at 97.5 miles per hour.

The Diamondbacks are 2.5 games out of the final NL wild card spot, putting them firmly on the buyer/seller bubble. Should they come out of the All-Star break and struggle, they could fall far enough out of the race that they'd at least consider selling off their rental assets, which would include Loaisiga.

While the Yankees should be looking to upgrade over Camilo Doval and Jake Bird, a reunion with Loaisiga shouldn't be in the cards. For one thing, there's too much history there to fully trust him, especially in any sort of medium-to-high leverage situations. For another, he doesn't provide the one element the Yankees truly need. Generating strikeouts has been an issue for the New York relief corps, and with a 17.9% strikeout rate on the year, Loaisiga would not provide any sort of improvement.

Instead, it looks like the oft-injured right-hander is finally healthy and has regained his peak form. We'll wish him well and wish that he could have figured this out while he was here, but it's time to move on.

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