The pitchers turned the New York Yankees around in August, after the nosedive of June and July. Their amazing start in March, April and May meant that they were always going to be in contention, but a 14-12 month was enough to put them back to the top of their division.

The starting rotation combined for 12 of those wins, and the bullpen made up mostly of names that were not well-known, combined to keep the team in contention in most games.

Lets see where the strengths lay:

* 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
Phil Bickford rp	0	0	0.00	1	0	1	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0.00
Tommy Kahnle rp	0	0	0.00	12	0	3	10	0	10.1	5	2	0	5	6	0.97
Ron Marinaccio	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	2.1	1	0	0	0	3	0.43
Tim Hill rp*	1	0	1.15	12	0	2	0	0	15.2	14	2	2	4	4	1.15
Jake Cousins rp	0	0	1.32	13	0	2	0	1	13.2	7	3	2	5	17	0.88
Gerrit Cole sp	2	1	1.93	5	5	0	0	0	28.0	23	6	6	10	31	1.18
Clay Holmes rp	0	0	1.93	10	0	7	0	7	9.1	3	2	2	4	15	0.75
Nestor Cortes sp*	3	1	2.49	4	4	0	0	0	25.1	19	7	7	3	20	0.87
Tim Mayza rp*	0	1	3.86	7	0	2	0	0	7.0	7	5	3	0	3	1.00
Luke Weaver rp	0	1	3.97	12	0	2	0	0	11.1	8	5	5	7	13	1.32
Carlos Rodon sp*	3	2	4.15	5	5	0	0	0	26.0	25	12	12	11	32	1.38
Marcus Stroman sp	3	1	4.56	5	5	0	0	0	25.2	30	13	13	9	19	1.52
Luis Gil sp	1	1	5.25	3	3	0	0	0	12.0	12	7	7	13	12	2.08
Mark Leiter jr rp	1	1	6.35	12	0	3	0	0	11.1	16	10	8	5	17	1.85
Michael Tonkin rp	0	0	6.57	7	0	3	0	0	12.1	17	9	9	3	13	1.62
Will Warren sp	0	3	10.47	4	4	0	0	0	16.1	27	20	19	7	20	2.08
Enyel De Los Santos rp	0	0	14.21	0	0	1	0	0	6.1	13	10	10	3	5	2.53
Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP

Starters

Gerrit Cole is starting to find his feet and refind the arm that led him to a Cy Young award not too long ago. The long period of injury leaves him out of that contention this year, but his form in August showed he is returning to his best. In August, he made 5 starts, taking 2 wins, 1 loss, and two no-decisions and pitching to a 1.93 ERA.

Then we turn our attention to Nestor Cortes. If Cole is the staff ace, then Cortes is the slightly under-appreciated workhorse. He is also most likely to bring a smile to the fans’ lips with his antics on the mound when he is feeling his confidence flow. He made 4 starts resulting in 3 wins and 1 loss. He averaged around six innings per start and achieved a 2.49 ERA which coupled with a 0.87 WHIP to mark a great month. I am still slightly staggered that the Yankees considered trading this guy away at the deadline. He should be regarded as an asset.

Both Carlos Rodon and Marcus Stroman achieved 3 wins this month, and came away with similar stats. Rodon has bounced back marvellously after a very disappointing 2023. Stroman still needs to persuade me that he is a good fit for the Yankees. They both averaged around 5 innings per start.

Luis Gil continues to have the wobbles now that he has passed his previous season maximum number of innings (set in 2022, he sat out 2023 due to injury). On the 21st of the month, he went onto the injured list due to a lower back strain, after a particularly disappointing outing. All the signs are that he will return in early September, and hopefully pitch to a better ERA than the 5.25 he concluded August with.

Will Warren is the guy who has been called up from Scranton to pick up the slack and spot starts when others are unavailable. A lot of commentators are saying how good he is, but I’m not joining that party. The cold hard facts are that he didn’t take a win in August (3 losses, 1 no-decision) and his WHIP of 2.08 is too high, but at least it is kinder than his 10.47 ERA. One for the future? Who knows…

Relievers

Tommy Kahnle is the Yankees’ best and most important reliever – when he can stay fit. In August, he pitched in 12 games for an ERA of zero, and a WHIP of 0.97. He is excelling.

Other sparkling performances? This is where we come to the guys who we couldn’t have guessed would be on the Yankees’ roster if we were having a conversation in April. Tim Hill and Jake Cousins are two in that category. Hill took a win this month, whilst he and Cousins did well to eat up the innings and keep the Yankees in the games. Hill produced 15.2 innings and a 1.52 and a 1.52 WHIP. Some kind of digital symmetry going on there. Cousins played in 13 games and produced 13.2 innings. His WHIP of 0.88 was third to Cortes and Holmes.

Which brings us to Clay Holmes… I maintain that he is the ultimate player for feeding on cofidence. You just don’t want him to hit a slump, then you’ll watch everything spiral away from him, as heads into the abyss. Fortunately, providence was on his side this month for most of the time. 7 saves and a team leading (0.75 WHIP). It is all good until next time it isn’t.

Tim Mayza was claimed off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays, and to be honest nobody was expecting much. He wasn’t the pitcher he once was. But to be honest, he is not doing too badly. I doubt he’ll make the post-season roster, but his 3.86 ERA and 1.00 WHIP will do for now. Breaking that down, he gives up a hit an inning, but doesn’t concede any works so far.

Now to Luke Weaver. Here’s another guy who didn’t look like he’d be here right now. In September last year, he was making up the numbers as a starter. He didn’t look any more than adequate… He spent the winter and Spring being converted into a reliever. The end result is that August was one of his weaker months, but he still pitched to a 3.97 ERA. All good, all unexpected!

Mark Leiter jr and Enyel De Los Santos were brought in at the trade deadline, and it has not gone well. De Los Santos is already gone after producing a 14.21 ERA and 2.53 ERA. That was ugly. Leiter is still around (3rd Yankee from that family), but it is not going well.

Bit players? Ron Marinaccio spent exactly one day on the major league roster in August. He arrived on the 10th and departed on the 11th. He did get into a game – pitching 2.1 innings for a 0.43 WHIP. However, his performances this season have been so uneven, he can hardly be regarded as dependable. Phil Bickford also made one appearance. He returned to the major league roster on the 25th. It was a surprising decision given his prior struggles. However, he pitched a great inning with no hits, no walks and one strikeout. Maybe there is hope for the guy yet.

Michael Tonkin had a weak month in August. However, it was still really surprising when the Yankees placed him on waivers on the 25th of August given his strong performance in previous months. Perhaps they were hoping he would claim waivers and that after sorting his mechanics at Scranton, he could be brought back to the Bronx. Some hope! He was claimed by the Minnesota Twins and his future now lies elsewhere.

Ian Hamilton, Lou Trivino, and Clayton Beeter remain on the injured list. Yoendrys Gomez and Scott Effross weren’t called up in August.