Yankees' Michael Tonkin has finally found a home, and he's thriving on the mound

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Michael Tonkin didn’t want to hear it.

Not about the difficult situation he had just faced on the night of April 26 in Milwaukee, a legitimate excuse at the ready but left on the cutting room floor.

“A just about impossible spot,” one of the then-newcomer’s fellow relievers called it a day later.

Tonkin has been a revelation for the Yankees, posting a 0.89 ERA in 14 games. The latest of those came Monday night against the Royals when the 34-year-old recorded his second career save.

With Aaron Boone wanting to stay away from closer Clay Holmes, who had been used in three of the previous four games, he called on Tonkin in the ninth inning with the Yankees ahead 4-2.

Tonkin struck out two and walked one in an overall seamless ninth, the continuation of the veteran’s stellar performance with his third club of 2024.

Some six weeks earlier, as the reliever’s Yankees career got underway, nothing portended the kind of run Tonkin has been on. His first game with the Yankees, in his eyes, seemed as if it might be his last.

The Yankees claimed Tonkin off waivers from the Mets April 25 and he arrived in the visiting clubhouse at American Family Field in Milwaukee in the afternoon on April 26.

Having had the opportunity to meet maybe half of his new teammates, Tonkin found himself called on a few hours later to protect a 6-5 lead in the 10th inning (Holmes kept the game scoreless with a perfect bottom of the ninth but Boone preferred not to send him out for a second inning).

A predictable result followed.

Tonkin, after his whirlwind two days and having last pitched in the big leagues five days earlier with the Mets, threw a passed ball with his first pitch. After falling in a 1-and-0 hole to Willy Adames, he committed a pitch clock violation. An RBI single to tie the score followed and the Brewers pushed another across against Tonkin in the 11th to win it.

Afterward, the soft-spoken Tonkin refused to acknowledge the difficulty of his circumstance.

“I think baseball in general is tough,” he said that night. “Still gotta go out and do your job.”

Tonkin’s reaction — accountable and without excuses, both with the media and his teammates — earned him instant respect in the clubhouse.

As did this: It was clear Tonkin wanted back on the mound. Soon.

“He’s fearless out there,” Boone said. “He’s got guts.”

Said Carlos Rodon, who earned the victory Monday after allowing one run over seven innings: “The biggest thing is the guy fills up the zone and is not scared to pitch, that’s for sure. A lot of confidence out there.”

Tonkin said his two-seam fastball, a pitch he started reincorporating into his repertoire in the spring, has been among the keys to his success. He used the word “chaotic” to describe his journey to the Yankees.

It’s an apt description.

He made the Mets’ roster out of spring training but was quickly DFA’d. Tonkin was then scooped up by the Twins and, after appearing in one game with them, was released and again signed by the Mets. Within days, it was back on the waiver wire and a trip to Milwaukee for an inauspicious start to what has been, at least so far, one of the Yankees’ feel-good stories in the early part of the season.

“The first month was less than ideal,” Tonkin said of bouncing from one team to another. “But to be here now, it’s all worth it . . . It’s good to get in a groove and get comfortable and be in a position where I feel like I’m not going to get tapped on the shoulder after every game [to get released]. All that kind of helps. As of late, I kind of feel like I’m kind of in a spot where I don’t have to fear too much of what could happen, but I obviously have to still go out there and do my job.”

Extra bases

Juan Soto, who returned to the lineup at DH Monday night after missing three games with left forearm inflammation, started in right Tuesday night. The final hurdle was playing catch and then long toss, which he did several hours before the game with third base/outfield coach Luis Rojas . . . After the slumping Anthony Rizzo was given a two-day break to, in Boone’s words, “turn the brain off a little bit” and get a mental “reset,” the veteran was back at first base Tuesday.