Yankees need bullpen help, but hope to get a lift from Aroldis Chapman
Aroldis Chapman of the Yankees pitches against the Mets at Citi Field on Tuesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Michael King’s season-ending elbow injury caused the Yankees to go from having relief help on their wish list before the Aug. 2 trade deadline to it being all but a must-have.
As one organizational insider put it over the weekend, the need for an additional starting pitcher, outfield depth and relief help have become “priorities 1a, 1b and 1c now.”
But while the Yankees are sure to bring in at least one reliever before the deadline – and don’t get caught up in the big names bandied about as it’s instructive to keep in mind that the Clay Holmes deal from a little more than a year ago was roundly mocked at first – they are maintaining hope they at some point could get a lift from one of their bullpen stalwarts from the previous five years: Aroldis Chapman.
“I think if you just strip away everything and just watch the way he's throwing the ball, to me it's as good as he thrown the ball in about 12 months, going back to the first couple of months of last season,” Aaron Boone said.
Chapman has been the same roller coaster ride since coming off the injured list July 1 that he was before hitting the IL with left Achilles tendinitis.
After a fairly dominant 1-2-3 sixth inning against the Mets Tuesday night – an outing he finished by striking out J.D. Davis swinging at a 100-mph fastball – Chapman still had an 8.59 ERA in nine outings since returning from the IL.
So what has been “encouraging” about Chapman, to take a word used by Boone on Tuesday?
Though there without question have been some hiccups in those nine outings – including in his first appearance July 2 at Cleveland when Chapman walked all three batters he faced before being yanked – Chapman has nonetheless held the opposition to a .160 batting average (4-for-25) in that stretch.
More significant, the Yankees see Chapman gradually trusting his fastball – still the reliever’s bread-and-butter pitch when he’s at his best – again rather than becoming overly reliant on his slider and splitter.
“You’ve got to stack those together,” Boone said of consecutive good outings. “Continue to get good outings and get that Chappy confidence to follow next, and then he becomes real dangerous. But we're seeing encouraging signs from a stuff standpoint, from his strike throwing. So just keep building.”
Rival talent evaluators assigned to the Yankees agree to a point, though they questioned if the Yankees will ever reach the point of being again comfortable putting Chapman, a free agent after the season, in high-leverage situations.
“The raw stuff is still there,” one NL scout said. “There are some mechanical things to smooth out and a mental aspect to address (with Chapman trusting his fastball), none of which should be insurmountable at all.”
An AL scout concurred about the quality of Chapman’s stuff seeming to be better than pre-injury but added: “I could only see him earning back their trust (in high-leverage) if he’s thrown in there out of necessity and then he ends up delivering. But I can’t see them willingly putting themselves in that situation as of now.”
King has surgery
King, who suffered a right elbow fracture during Friday’s outing at Baltimore, underwent surgery Tuesday morning in New York.
“I think everything went according to plan,” Boone said.
Though it was initially thought King avoided the kind of damage to the elbow ligament that would require Tommy John surgery – and, thus, wiping the pitcher’s entire 2023 season out as opposed to potentially being ready for spring training with no additional surgery – Boone said the club will have to wait a bit to be able to determine that for sure.
“I think in 8-to-10 weeks or so, when this heals, they’ll revisit what they think from a ligament standpoint,” Boone said. “I think there’s differing opinions there (with doctors) and they want to compare it to old things and see where it is as this heals. I don’t know all the intricacies of it, but I think they’ll have a better idea with some more time.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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