You wouldn’t know it from all the doom and gloom surrounding Aroldis Chapman’s recent ineptitude, but the Yankes have the best bullpen in baseball.
Entering their midweek series in Seattle, the Yankees’ relievers have combined for 4.2 Wins Above Replacement according to FanGraphs. That is tops in the league and half a win clear of the second-place team, who just so happens to be the Mariners.
While it’s true that Chapman’s final stretch before the All-Star break has been full of potholes and speed bumps, he is still an All-Star, and one that’s struck out nearly 40% of the hitters he’s faced this year. In a Twitter post on Tuesday morning, Chapman said that he still “has many wars to win and many mouths to shut up” while also writing that he does not know how his story ends.
Manager Aaron Boone offered anything but a vote of confidence after Sunday’s doubleheader, saying that he’d explore all of his options for the closer role, singling out Chad Green and Jonathan Loaisiga specifically as potential fill-ins. Green, who closed out the Yankees’ only win of the three-game set with the Mets, said what his manager wouldn’t.
“I think Chapman’s the closer obviously,” Green began. “So we have faith in Chappy. His stuff is still really good. Obviously, he’s going through a rough patch, but we have no doubt that he’s gonna work through it and be good to go the rest of the year.”
The thing is, the Yankees shouldn’t be freaking out or jumping at any drastic changes. Part of the reason the Yankees are still clinging to a winning record at all is because of their bullpen. Despite getting next to nothing from Zack Britton, Darren O’Day and Justin Wilson, the bullpen has been a strength for this team that remains starved for offense.
They’re 30-4 when entering the eighth inning with a lead and an even better 35-2 when they bring a lead to the ninth. This is a squad that should feel secure when they’re on top late in the game.
Two calamitous weeks from Chapman have marred that feeling for sure. Unfortunately, the Yankees and their 5.5 game deficit in the wild card standings don’t have a lot of room to be patient with him. But every closer slumps from time to time (although it’s worth noting that Chapman’s downturn started right after Major League Baseball began its sticky stuff checks) and a steadfast reliance on the bullpen has kept the Yanks in the race by the skin of their teeth.
Those teeth would have likely fallen out by now if not for three middle relievers. Green, Loaisiga and Lucas Luetge have put Chapman in a position to succeed all year. That trio have been the most commonly used relief pitchers, each giving Boone at least 40 innings out of the pen thus far. Green and Loaisiga have compelling All-Star cases of their own, but in the hierarchy of bullpens, the guy throwing the ninth inning will always get the mainstream recognition, no matter how dire things have gotten.
Both Green (2.28) and Loaisiga (2.20) have one of the seven lowest ERA’s among relievers who have tossed 40 innings or more. Green is allowing less than one baserunner per inning, holding the league to a .162 average and striking out 29.5% of his enemies. He’s dramatically increased his curveball usage — particularly to lefties, who have struck out on it more often that they’ve gotten a hit — and perhaps more importantly, is getting it over the plate. Last season just 29.6% of Green’s curveballs to left-handed hitters landed in the strike zone. This year that’s up to 49.2%.
Loaisiga has had an even more dramatic change to his pitch deployment. Armed with a 97 mph sinker, he’s decided to make that the main course. In 2020, Loaisiga was 42.6% four-seam fastball and 24.6% sinker. 2021, meanwhile, has seen him shift to a 54.9% sinker usage. The four seamer has taken a backseat, seeing the light of day on only 5.1% of his pitches, and he’s become a linchpin holding the Yankees’ wobbly playoff hopes together.
Finally, and undoubtedly the greatest story, is Luetge. By now, many people are familiar with his major league journey, which stalled out after 2015. When he made his way back and earned a spot on the Yankees’ Opening Day roster, though, he was doing so with a pitch he had never thrown in the bigs. Luetge’s cutter is a new pitch for him; he had literally never thrown it in the majors until this year. Boy, is he throwing it now. Luetge keeps hitters at bay by snapping a cutter at them more than 60% of the time. Paired with a curveball that still hasn’t gone for a base hit this year, and Luetge is now very much a big-league pitcher again.
Luis Cessa, Nestor Cortes Jr. and Michael King deserve praise too. The less heralded trio has done a formidable job when called upon, giving the Yankees seven solid relievers when Chapman is firing.
After finishing up with the Mariners, the rest of the Yankees’ month is full of Astros, Red Sox and Rays. That likely spells a large amount of close, tense games for the Bombers, who need their league-best bullpen to show up now more than ever.
