NY bullpen 2017

[jon abbey]

I never started a bullpen thread this year, but with yesterday's deal, seems like as good a time as any.

According to Fangraphs, NY now has easily the best bullpen in baseball on paper, kind of amazing:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-yankees-bullpen-could-be-something-unbelievable/

I still think Cashman will move Betances before July 31 if he can get a deal he's happy with, but for now, this is how they line up:

Chapman
Robertson
Betances
Kahnle
Green
Warren

All six of those guys are under contract through at least 2018, Robertson and Warren are FAs then. Betances is through 2019, Kahnle 2020, Chapman 2021, Green is still pre-arb.

Caleb Smith is the other guy there currently (and the only lefty besides Chapman, although all of these guys seem to have equally great numbers against LHBs). In the minors, they have Heller, Holder, and Gallegos as actual relief pitchers on the 40 man, plus a bunch of starters they bring up to fill innings when needed (Mitchell, German, Herrera, Enns may join this list at some point now that he is healthy).

 

[jon abbey]

So the obvious rejoinder is that if Chapman and Betances don't figure their shit out and Kahnle reverts to the mediocrity he was until late 2016, the bullpen still will have big issues, so I guess we'll see. This is a pretty crazy thing to read, though, from the conclusion of the above linked Fangraphs piece:

"Max Scherzer joined the Nationals in 2015. So far he’s been a tremendous success. He’s struck out a third of his opponents, running an ERA- of 65, and an FIP- of 72. When you combine and average the current Yankees relievers, it comes out looking like a bullpen full of Max Scherzers. Some of them are better, and some of them are worse. That’s how a distribution is. But the potential for dominance here is obscene."

 

[jon abbey]

Also in the last two years, they have traded away Andrew Miller, Justin Wilson, James Pazos, Nick Goody, all good AL relievers this year, and gotten back Clint Frazier/Justus Sheffield/Chad Green/Luis Cessa/Zack Littell*, they have been a reliever factory for a while now. Even Robertson and Kahnle both started with NY, not sure how to explain it. They do spend a lot of money there at times but also they develop so many guys on their own.

* Littell is the 21 year old SP they got from SEA for Pazos, he is absolutely steamrolling through AA currently. 17 starts in high A and AA combined, he is 14-1 with a 1.94 ERA. He has made himself a definite 40 man protect and is climbing the ranks of NY's potential SPs quickly.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=641793#/career/R/pitching/2017/ALL

 

[jon abbey]

Also in the last two years, they have traded away Andrew Miller, Justin Wilson, James Pazos, Nick Goody, all good AL relievers this year, and gotten back Clint Frazier/Justus Sheffield/Chad Green/Luis Cessa/Zack Littell*, they have been a reliever factory for a while now. Even Robertson and Kahnle both started with NY, not sure how to explain it. They do spend a lot of money there at times but also they develop so many guys on their own.

* Littell is the 21 year old SP they got from SEA for Pazos, he is absolutely steamrolling through AA currently. 17 starts in high A and AA combined, he is 14-1 with a 1.94 ERA. He has made himself a definite 40 man protect and is climbing the ranks of NY's potential SPs quickly.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=641793#/career/R/pitching/2017/ALL

 

[jon abbey]

Girardi hasn't yet said how he plans to use this newfound bounty, but if they keep Betances, he has the personnel to have two closers (Chapman/Robertson) and two setup men (Betances/Kahnle) and just use whichever of each pair is fresher. At least that could be a starting point, Chapman already has his contract and Robertson will be happy to get some save chances too.

 

[jon abbey]

Chad Green is quietly having the best season of any of the Yankee relievers, it's incredible they have the depth to use him in the 4th inning like they did today. He had one brief start, so subtracting that out, these are his numbers in relief this year and for comparison Kimbrel's spectacular season so far:

Green 38.1 14 5 5 10 51, ERA 1.17, WHIP 0.63
Kimbrel 41 17 6 6 6 73, ERA 1.32, WHIP 0.56

Honestly not trying to compare the two, Kimbrel pitches much higher leverage innings, but Green is quite the weapon right now, amazing to have him and Kahnle ahead of Betances/Robertson/Chapman (plus Warren).

 

[jon abbey]

NY has 5 of the top 12 in K/9 for relievers in the AL (minimum 20 IP):

 

[terrynever]

Yanks' bullpen not highly rated in Nate Silver's "goose egg" stat chart:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/baseball-is-finally-realizing-that-the-save-is-dumb/

 

[Papelbon's Poutine]

Chapman to take a respite from closer duties:

Right now, Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman is in the middle of the worst stretch of his career. He was roughed up for two runs in a non-save situation Friday night, and he has now allowed a run in four consecutive outings. Chapman has allowed two runs in three consecutive outings, and has a decidedly un-Chapman-like 4.29 ERA in 35 2/3 innings this year.

As a result of his recent ineffectiveness, Yankees manager Joe Girardi announced Saturday afternoon that Chapman is out as his closer, at least for the time being.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/yankees-remove-aroldis-chapman-from-closer-role-after-four-straight-ugly-outings/

 

[jon abbey]

Max Wildstein‏Verified account @MaxWildstein 4h4 hours ago

David Robertson, Aroldis Chapman, Tommy Kahnle and Chad Green have a 0.21 ERA combined this month with 64 K, 12 BB, 18 H in 42.1 IP #Yankees

 

[jon abbey]

That's one earned run between them in 42.1 innings for NY's main four relievers at this point, with Betances and Warren additional possible wild cards, for different reasons.