Injuries? The Yankees got ’em.

Nestor Cortes; Luis Severino; Albert Abreu; Anthony Misiewicz; Wandy Peralta; Tommy Kahnle; Ryan Weber; Luis Gil; Lou Trivino.

And Frankie Montas, and Keynan Middleton just made it back before the end of the season.

And Ian Hamilton by the middle of September.

No surprise then that the patched up Yankees rotation and bullpen struggled in September and in game 162 in October.

Thank goodness for Gerrit Cole.

Let’s take an overview of the stats…

Here are the pitching statistics for September:

* indicates left-handed pitcher. No * indicates right-handed pitcher

Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP
Yoendrys Gomez rp	0	0	0.00	1	0	1	0	0	2.0	1	0	0	0	4	0.50
Ron Marinaccio rp	0	0	0.00	1	0	1	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	2	1	2.00
Frankie Montas sp/rp	1	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	1.1	1	0	0	1	1	2.25
Wandy Peralta rp	1	0	0.00	7	0	0	0	0	6.1	3	0	0	5	7	1.26
Clay Holmes rp	0	0	0.75	12	0	11	0	8	12.0	5	2	1	4	11	0.75
Gerrit Cole sp	3	0	1.03	5	5	0	1	0	35.0	21	4	4	3	34	0.69
Jhony Brito rp/sp	4	1	1.06	6	0	1	0	1	17.0	10	2	2	3	13	0.76
Michael King sp/rp	1	2	1.30	5	5	0	0	0	27.2	21	5	4	7	39	1.01
Tommy Kahnle rp	0	0	2.08	7	0	2	0	1	8.2	1	2	2	6	8	0.81
Nick Ramirez rp	1	0	2.57	6	0	2	0	1	7.0	7	4	2	0	3	1.00
Anthony Misiewicz rp	1	0	3.38	3	0	1	0	0	2.2	2	3	1	3	2	1.88
Luke Weaver sp	1	1	3.38	3	3	0	0	0	13.1	14	5	5	3	16	1.28
Randy Vasquez rp/sp	0	0	3.52	6	1	1	0	0	15.1	16	6	6	7	18	1.50
Greg Weissert rp	0	0	4.35	9	0	1	0	0	10.1	12	5	5	2	12	1.35
Clarke Schmidt sp	1	1	5.11	5	5	0	0	0	24.2	27	15	14	8	16	1.42
Ian Hamilton rp	1	0	6.35	4	0	0	0	0	5.2	8	4	4	3	5	1.94
Luis Severino sp	0	0	6.75	2	2	0	0	0	8.0	10	6	6	2	8	1.50
Carlos Rodon sp	2	4	8.10	6	6	0	0	0	26.2	32	26	24	8	31	1.50
Albert Abreu rp	0	0	9.00	1	0	0	0	0	2.0	3	2	2	0	3	1.50
Matt Bowman rp	0	0	9.00	3	0	1	0	0	4.0	6	4	4	2	3	2.00
Jonathan Loaisiga rp	0	1	9.00	5	0	1	0	0	5.0	10	5	5	0	1	2.00
Zach McAllister rp	0	0	10.13	7	0	1	0	0	5.1	9	7	6	2	5	2.06
Keynan Middleton rp	0	0	18.00	1	0	0	0	0	1.0	2	2	2	1	0	3.00
Matt Krook rp	0	0	36.00	2	0	1	0	0	1.0	2	4	4	2	2	4.00
Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP

And the pitching statistics for October:

Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP
Greg Weissert rp	0	0	0.00	1	0	1	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	1	1	1.00
Jhony Brito rp/sp	0	0	3.00	1	0	0	0	0	3.0	3	1	1	0	6	1.00
Michael King sp/rp	0	1	9.00	1	1	0	0	0	4.0	8	4	4	0	1	2.00
Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP

Starters

Carlos Rodon made more starts in September than anyone else on the roster, and it still isn’t going too well. He took 2 wins but 4 losses, with a 8.10 ERA and 1.50 WHIP. Indeed, he averaged less than 5 innings per start. Here’s another Yankee with a large, long term contract, whose form is not living up to its billing.

Across September and October, Michael King made six starts. The Yankees have worked hard at building up his stamina, and they seem him as a likely fixture in the rotation in 2024. His ERA and WHIP were solid, but over the period he took 3 losses compared to only one win. He still has some progress to make before we write his name into that starting set.

Clarke Schmidt has given the Yankees more than they expected in 2023. Indeed, at the beginning of the year, he was not seen as a starter, never mind someone who started every fifth day. But a starter he was, all season. However, September wasn’t his best month, and distinctly average he was. 1 win, 1 loss, 3 no decisions, an average of less than 5 innings per start and a 1.42 WHIP. As I say, not his best period.

All of which is no more than a build-up, and preamble, to the staff ace who did all that was expected and more, in September. He made 5 starts including a complete game. He took 3 wins, no losses. He pitched to a 1.03 ERA, and a 0.69 WHIP. He delivered 34 strikeouts and only 3 walks. I am, of course, talking about Gerrit Cole. If he had been on a stronger team, it is hard to predict just how many wins he would achieved for the Yankees. He played at a tremendous and consistent level, and deserves the American League Cy Young award.

And then there were the rest… Luis Severino returned to the struggles that have dominated his season. Randy Vasquez did okay, but then was returned to Triple-A to give the team more options. And Luke Weaver was picked up from Seattle’s garbage heap, just to pad the rotation. In his three starts, he did better than anybody had a right to expect but unless the Yankees are knee deep in injuries again next year, don’t expect to see him back in the Bronx in 2024.

At least there are no more chapters to report in the great Domingo German saga. We hope there will never be.

Relievers

Because of all the injuries, several new and journeyman pitchers, got an unexpected opportunity and tryout. Not many of them took their chance.

One player in that category who did well was the young call-up from Triple-A Scranton, Yoendrys Gomez. The highly rated Gomez, who is protected by already being on the 40 man roster, was called up on the 22nd of September and remained with the big league club until the 29th. During this period, he made his Yankees debut on the 28th in Toronto. In many ways he exceeded expectations, pitching 2 innings and striking out 4 whilst conceding no runs.

Then there were bit players who did not impress. Zach McAllister was one of these. He has an amazing back story. He was drafted by the Yankees in 2006 in the third round. He remained in the Yankees farm system until 2010 without ever making it to the majors, and then joined Cleveland as the player to be named later in a trade for Austin Kearns. He then, after a time with the Indians, spent a briefer time with the Detroit Tigers. A convoluted history followed with him spending time in the minor league systems of the Dodgers, Rangers. Phillies, and Cardinals. The rambling saga seemingly came to an end, when after a time in the minors at Arizona, he was released in August 2023. However, the story took a dramatic twist when a few days later he was signed by the team he had been with at the outset and assigned to the Yankees’ Triple-A outfit in Scranton. This meant that when the injury crisis hit again, this time affecting mostly pitchers, he was called up to make his debut for the Bombers. But, there was to be no fairytale ending. Despite a promising beginning, he closed out the month with a 10.13 ERA and 2.06 WHIP.

Anthony Misiewicz was another surprise call-up having left the Detroit Tigers in June. He started well with the Yankees in his first two appearances until, while struggling in a game against Pittsburgh on the 15th of September, he was hit by a line drive in the head. He spent the rest of the season on the injured list with concussion. His injury was not serious as it might have been fortunately. His 1.88 WHIP tells the story, but he will have enjoyed his time on the Yankees prior to the horrible incident which seems to have ended it.

The last player in this category was Matt Bowman who last played in the majors in 2019, having spent time with St Louis, and Cincinnati. He signed with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders in January. He was even less successful than Misiewicz and McAllister, giving up 4 runs in 4 innings across three appearances and was optioned back to the minors in the middle of the month.

The best of the bullpen was Clay Holmes, who found himself on a great run of form. As I have said on a couple of occasions before, I regard Holmes as being very much a confidence pitcher. When his individual performance is going well, he will build on it. When things are going badly he seems to go into a dark funk. This month was one of the good ones, which saw him win the American League Reliever of the Month award. He pitched in 12 games and gave up only one earned run. This gave him a 0.75 ERA, a 0.75 WHIP, and 11 strikeouts. If only he could be that consistently good all the time.

If Holmes was great, then Jhony Brito wasn’t far behind. Brito was used as a starter at all, but seems to settling nicely into a long relief role. He gives the Yankees nearly 3 innings per appearance in that position. He took four wins, 1 loss, 1 no decision. His WHIP was one decimal place higher than Holmes’, and he came in with a 1.06 ERA. Just great for a young player establishing himself.

Wandy Peralta and Tommy Kahnle were going well this month, but were troubled by injury problems towards the conclusion of the season. Peralta has been steady all year, and continued in that mode. Kahnle has had an uneven year, but this month was one of his better periods. He needs to show his ability to avoid injury as the new season comes around. Peralta is out of contract. The Yankees should pursue him.

Nick Ramirez did well. The Yankees have got substantially less than they expected from a lot of players this year. Ramirez is one of the exceptions. He took a win in September, and only gave up 7 hits in 6 games with no walks given up.

Greg Weissert held his own and he has possibilities for the future too. Other than Holmes, he was used more than any other reliever in September – October. Spring will be a very important time for him to continue to prove himself.

As well as struggling with injuries, Ian Hamilton had his worst month on the mound. Only time will tell whether the two factors are related. It is important to note that the Yankees didn’t expect anything from him this year, and that for most of his season he has been one of their most effective relievers.

Albert Abreu and Jonathan Loaisiga also struggled this month. The Yankees will expect Loaisiga to bounce back from an ineffective 2023. Abreu should look forward to being bounced off the roster and finding a new home.

Matt Krook has been given several opportunities this season to show he can pitch at the big league level. He can’t. In June, he pitched a 21.00 ERA. In July, it was 27.00. Somehow, this month he pitched and succeeded in doing even worse than in those two months with a 36.00 ERA. Somebody, please put him and us out of this misery.

Finally, we look at two pitchers who have done well in the recent past. Ron Marinaccio did well in 2022, but has been pretty awful this year. Whilst his September stats show he had a 0.00 ERA, they also reveal a 2.00 WHIP and the latter figure is the one which is truly indicative. He had a bad time at Scranton when he was given time in the minors to try and get his act together. That one is a mystery to me.

On the other hand, Keynan Middleton was roughed up this month but that seems to be more to do with his injury and subsequent need to recover. He pitched well for the Yankees since he came over from Chicago. His contract is up, but he would like to re-sign. A Spring Training tryout would seem to be in his future, unless someone else comes along with a better offer.