Looking Ahead to 2010: Relievers

We all heard it last winter; with the signings of Sabathia, Burnett, and Teixiera, the Yankees were left with only one weakness:  Their bullpen.       Opening Day 2009 didn’t quell those fears, as the bullpen imploded miserably, following CC Sabathia’s shaky debut.    In the first month of the season, the bullpen fashioned a 6.46 ERA, as even the great Mariano Rivera was giving up home runs at an alarming rate early on.    The main culprit of the Yankees’ early swoon was the inability to throw strikes; in April and May, Yankees’ relievers walked a total of 75 hitters in 160 combined innings, to go along with an impressive 141 strikeouts.

As we all know, things started to turn around from there:  The Yankees finally added a long reliever to the mix in Alfredo Aceves, who instantly stabilized all facets of the bullpen.  Girardi used him in a variety of roles, and he excelled in all of them.   Aceves is one of those pitchers with a whole that is much better than the individual parts; he has no one pitch that can overwhelm you.  But every pitch he does throw is at least slightly above average.    He ran into a wall late in the season and into the postseason, but nobody can argue that Aceves wasn’t a key contributor to the bullpen’s turnaround.

I don’t even really need to mention the other big thing that helped the bullpen, but I will:  The Yankees, trying to squeeze whatever they can get out of Chien-Ming Wang, moved Phil Hughes to the bullpen in favor of sending him to Scranton.   At the time of the move, I was in favor of it – figuring that Hughes really had nothing to prove in Scranton anymore.  It was his time to sink or swim at the major league level.   Of course, I also thought the plan would be to keep Hughes extended – giving him some multi-inning outings to keep his arm stretched out for the eventual return to the rotation.   Of course, it didn’t work that way – as everyone else failed to take the 8th inning slot, Hughes thrived and Girardi began to use him strictly as a short reliever, going as far as to play the matchup game at times, bringing in Hughes to get one or two hitters out a a time.   I didn’t agree with it then (and I still don’t now), but Hughes’ bullpen performance definitely helped the 2009 cause.  (Though anyone who says that Hughes moving to the bullpen was the biggest reason why the team surged to the division crown and eventual championship doesn’t pay attention to baseball…or just wants to overvalue a home-grown kid living up to a smudge of his potential.   Whatever the reason, I’ll just leave it at the fact that Hughes played a key role, just not one of the biggest roles).

And, last but not least, the Yankees struck gold with David Robertson, a reliever who jumped through the system, dominating hitters at every stop along the way.   The big caveat with Robertson was that he did it more with his breaking ball than his fastball – but the Yankees quickly found out that Robertson’s fastball has a certain sneaky-fast quality to it that makes hitters swing and miss despite velocity that rarely gets above 92-93 MPH.    His curve ball also helps the cause – to the point where I already believe it is one of the best in the business.  It doesn’t quite have the Tom Gordon-like quality to it, but it’s darn close.    Robertson is also a bit of a health concern going forward, but relievers by nature are health concerns (to go along with the concerns that they could collapse at any point).  There really is no reason to be worried about Robertson; if he falls apart, it happens.  But he hasn’t yet, so why worry?

So, at the moment, the Yankees have the following guarantees for their 2010 bullpen:   Mariano Rivera, Damaso Marte (huge contributor in the playoff run), David Robertson, and Alfredo Aceves.   With a 12-man pitching staff, that means they currently have three slots to fill in.      Brian Bruney will probably have a nice inside track on one of those bullpen slots as long as he is healthy and throwing hard, and no, I am not forgetting about Phil Coke; I just don’t think his 2009 performance guarantees anything. He was essentially buried in the postseason.  (as was Bruney, rightfully so).      But since Girardi likes to have two lefties and I doubt the Yankees will go on a big hunt for another lefty, Coke definitely has an upper hand unless a guy like Michael Dunn flourishes in the spring.  Dunn needs to prove he can throw 3 strikes before he can throw 4 balls on a more consistent basis first.   Zach Kroenke can also be an interesting option, but he is Rule 5 eligible and was drafted last year.  So there exists the possibility that he will go away.    A sleeper to put in your back pocket is Wilkin De La Rosa, a strong-armed former outfielder who never could hit.   De La Rosa put up decent numbers for AA Trenton this past season as he was working on his secondary pitches.  As a reliever, only one of those secondary pitches would need to be above-average to go along with his fastball.  The problem is that he is still developing and you may stunt his potential by throwing him into a big-league bullpen over having him start in Trenton or Scranton.

On the right-handed side of the ledger, the Yankees are probably going to keep Chad Gaudin around in some capacity – I like Gaudin, as he misses a lot of bats.  He lacks some of the stamina that you would want out of a starting pitcher (never mind the occasional hiccups with his control), but I think over the course of a full season, one would be very happy with his performance.      The best reliever prosect is Mark Melancon, who has a combination of stuff and command that makes the Yankees’ drool.  However, he didn’t display that command in his brief major league tenure in 2009.   As long as he is healthy, however, one would think that the Yankees are going to give him a fair chance at one of the open bullpen slots.    They could also try the “starter in the bullpen” approach with guys like Zach McAllister or Ivan Nova, but I think the general consensus is probably to let them start full-time in Scranton for at least a little while in 2010.      The Yankees can also turn to hard-throwing righty Romulo Sanchez, who struck out 94 hitters in 89.1 minor league innings in 2009.    Sanchez has plenty of talent, but like a lot of disposable relievers, command can be an issue.  He’s the type of pitcher you hope you can squeeze a season or two of excellence out of while his arm is good enough to make up for the command.   I can see them trying to get something out of him that is similar to what they got out of Jose Veras in 2008 – a solid low-to-mid leverage reliever who costs nothing.    Another arm they might consider (though not out of spring training) is Eric Wordekemper, who has generated a lot of ground balls in the minor leagues.  He also improved his control in 2009 (15 walks in 58.2 innings; in 2008, he walked 26 in 52 innings.)  Wordekemper is 26 years old, but when it comes to relief pitchers, age isn’t a huge issue.   Plenty of solid relievers got late starts in the big leagues; and, as I stated previously, the lifespan of a reliever isn’t usually that long anyway.

There is also talk that the Yankees will be looking at some free agents.  I am not totally opposed to signing free agent relievers for the correct terms.  I think the Yankees have learned their lesson from the days they would give a “proven veteran” closer-type money to setup Mariano.   It really only worked with one pitcher – Tom Gordon – and he didn’t do well in the postseason.    It’s just a better use of resources to spend your money on something other than a reliever in most cases.      For that reason, I hope they stay away from the bigger ticket items like Rafael Soriano, Jose Valverde, and Mike Gonzalez.    If they want to take a lower-money flyer on guys like JJ Putz, Duaner Sanchez, or Chad Cordero then I wouldn’t fuss too much over it.   But hopefully only for an amount of money that they wouldn’t mind designating for assignment at some point if the pitcher isn’t performing.   All three of these guys have had varying amount of success in the big leagues, but all three are coming off of injury-plagued campaigns.     Cordero didn’t pitch in 2009, Sanchez pitched to a 9.00 ERA in 12 games before getting released, and Putz pitched poorly before going down for the season for the Mets.        As I said, all three guys represent upside and nothing else.  But I’ll take a non-guaranteed upside guy over guaranteeing some big-ticket reliever a big contract anyday.   Especially since the Yankees’ bullpen, as is, is not exactly poor or devoid of options.

So, I would be comfortable in 2010 started with Rivera/Robertson/Marte/Coke/Bruney/Aceves/Melancon.   But I can see where the Yankees may have a little bit of discomfort knowing that only Mariano is a definite “solid” from the group.  That’s the thing with bullpens, though – one day, it is a major weakness.  The next day, without making any kind of major trade, it can be a big strength.  Just ask the 2009 Yankees.