Jonathan Loaisiga has become a viable bullpen option again for Yankees

A little over two months ago, Jonathan Loaisiga was viewed as a liability – a bullpen arm that, through injury and mechanical mishaps, couldn’t be relied on in a high-leverage situation. Tuesday, he was the first Yankee reliever summoned when the Guardians had a runner on base and the top of the order up in the seventh inning of Game 1 of the ALDS.

Sometimes baseball knocks you down, but, in Loaisiga’s case, it can bring you back up again, too. And for a Yankees bullpen in deep flux, Loaisiga represents versatility, stability, and a viable option in their closer-by-committee setup.

“It's huge,” Aaron Boone said before the Yankees' workout Wednesday. “He's a great pitcher, and as we've talked about a lot - you know, I know people feel like we have a lot of questions down there; fair. We don't have the 'this guy is the closer' and all these certain roles. But I do feel like right now, even though we have experienced some attrition down there, we have a lot of really talented options down there and Lo is right in the middle of that.”

Loaisiga came in Tuesday with one on and one out, and allowed a single to bring the tying run to the plate before getting Amed Rosario to ground into a double play. The righthander had a 7.50 first-half ERA, was shelved for nearly six weeks because of a shoulder impingement, and had some difficulty adjusting upon his return before something finally just clicked: His sinker started dropping more - two extra inches, on average - becoming a devastating out pitch, and, since Aug. 22, he’s earned two saves and three holds, pitching to a 1.37 ERA over 17 regular-season games.

“The adjustment we've made in my mechanics, it had to do with my shoulder, actually,” he said via interpreter. “We felt that it was lagging behind a little bit, and I was putting a little too much stress on the shoulder. So together with Harkey (bullpen coach Mike Harkey) and our pitching coach, (Matt) Blake, we worked on that just to get in a better position that would allow me to be more fluid executing pitches.”

The average launch angle on that pitch took a nosedive beginning in August, according to Baseball Savant. The result is a pitcher far closer to the one that threw to a 2.17 ERA last year.

“I think he just came back (from his injury) and started pitching the way he's very much capable of,” Boone said. “We saw it all year last year. He was one of the dominant relievers in the league.”

To go far, the Yankees will need every bit of that back.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.