Yankees' silliest addition of offseason just rained all over their parade in debut

When the New York Yankees acquired Angel Chivilli of the Colorado Rockies this offseason, it could've been an under-the-radar project for the ol' pitching lab: a man with 99 MPH heat, a devastating changeup, and a 1.688 WHIP last season in the thin mountain air. It could've been a "fun to fix!" situation. But the Yankees didn't do anything else to bolster their bullpen beyond bringing back Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn, selecting Cade Winquest in the Rule 5 Draft, and feeding us lies about Camilo Doval's transformation.

And so, just like that, Chivilli became a little too important at work. If the Yankees were going to get anything new out of the 'pen, it would be because Winquest clicked and Chivilli changed.

19 games into the season, Winquest is now the Ghost of Bullpens Past, returned to St. Louis without ever appearing in a Yankee game. Chivilli is here, but maybe not to stay, only promoted because of Jake Bird's botch job and Yerry de los Santos soaking up innings in a 7-1 loss.

Chivilli made his debut in a game in which Oswald Peraza had already wreaked havoc (so much for our double revenge on the revenge), one in which the Yankees trailed 6-4 at the time of his arrival. Of course — of course! — he immediately proved emphatically that pitching is still about so much more than just the metrics.

Some guys can learn to maximize their incredible arsenals over time. Some guys succeed despite less-than-inspiring stuff because of advanced pitching know-how. And some guys just try to let their arm do the talking and thinking at the same time. There's nowhere to go from here. They just exist in their current form, forever and ever.

We're not there yet, but it certainly seems like Chivilli is the latter. After pairing his heater with some excellent changes to send Zach Neto packing, he spammed change after change to Mike Trout, who did what Mike Trout does. He did what any hitter would do when presented with the same pitch repeatedly. He torched it — and, because he's a superhuman, it probably went about 40 feet farther. It would've been a dinger in any environment, though, with any professional holding the bat.

Two walks and 26 pitches later, Chivilli was out of the game, unable to complete an inning or soak up much of anything.

Early returns on Yankees' Angel Chivilli experiment further reinforce the dominant narrative

The Triple-A numbers, the spin rates, the poorer-than-poor spring training stats ... they all paint the same picture. Chivilli is a roller coaster. You're not going to fix that in two months. You may never do it. Sometimes, it's innate. He may just not have it. The command. The fortitude. All of it.

Chivilli, as a fifth bullpen addition, would've been enticing. We would've gotten to learn more about how he ticks, and we wouldn't have expected much, but ... hey, you never know. Chivilli (and Winquest) as the Yankees' only pickups to help them potentially survive to the deadline? Hubris at its finest. And everyone saw it coming except the team that thinks they're smarter than you.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow