The Yankees rolled to a 3-0 start in March, but there were notes of caution with new signing and staff ace, Max Fried getting off to a difficult first start – despite a no-decision, he began with a 3.86 and a 1.93 WHIP. The Yankees need Fried to perform well with Gerrit Cole gone for the season.

Also going through a struggle was new and expensive signing, Devin Williams who the Yankees signed despite seemingly have a great closer already in Luke Weaver. Williams and the 9th inning weren’t getting along. In his one March appearance, he ran up a 9.00 ERA and a 3.00 WHIP.

But the late days of March are one thing and the whole season is another. And perhaps these guys could turn it all around. In Fried’s case this was certainly the way of things. In April, he gathered up 5 wins and no losses. This meant a 0.82 ERA and 0.91 WHIP. Excellent! The Yankees couldn’t ask for more.

This wasn’t the case for Williams. In April’s 11 appearances that 9.00 ERA hung around to haunt him. He took two losses and only three saves. He lost the closer role to the aforementioned Weaver who gathered up an equal amount of saves. Williams’ 1.89 WHIP was second only to the troubled and troublesome Marcus Stroman, and left the Yankees’ fans wishing that Williams and his beard had been left in Milwaukee.

Here are the March statistics:

Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP
Fernando Cruz rp	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	1	1	1.00
Yoendrys Gomez rp	1	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	1.1	1	0	0	0	1	0.75
Brent Headrick rp	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	2	0.00
Tim Hill rp	1	0	0.00	2	0	0	0	0	2.0	1	0	0	0	3	0.50
Mark Leiter Jr. rp	0	0	0.00	2	0	0	0	0	2.0	0	0	0	0	4	0.00
Luke Weaver rp	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	1	2	1.00
Ryan Yarbrough rp/sp	0	0	0.00	1	0	1	0	0	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	1.00
Carlos Rodon sp	1	0	1.69	1	1	0	0	0	5.1	4	1	1	2	7	1.13
Max Fried sp	0	0	3.86	1	1	0	0	0	4.2	7	6	2	2	4	1.93
Marcus Stroman sp	0	0	5.79	1	1	0	0	0	4.2	5	3	3	1	3	1.29
Devin Williams rp	0	0	9.00	1	1	1	0	1	1.0	2	1	1	1	2	3.00
Carlos Carrasco sp/rp	0	0	13.50	1	0	1	0	0	2.0	5	3	3	0	2	2.50
Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP

And the April ones:

Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP
Yerry De Los Santos rp	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	2.0	3	0	0	0	1	1.50
Brent Headrick rp	0	0	0.00	3	0	1	0	0	4.1	1	0	0	2	7	0.69
Adam Ottavino rp	0	0	0.00	3	0	0	0	0	1.2	0	0	0	4	3	2.40
Luke Weaver rp	0	0	0.00	11	0	5	0	2	13.0	3	0	0	4	12	0.54
Max Fried sp	5	0	0.82	5	5	0	0	0	33.0	23	4	3	7	29	0.91
Fernando Cruz rp	0	0	1.72	13	0	3	0	2	15.2	8	5	3	5	26	0.83
Ian Hamilton rp	0	0	1.93	7	0	0	0	0	9.1	2	2	2	5	11	0.75
Yoendrys Gomez rp	0	1	3.12	5	0	3	0	0	8.2	4	4	3	9	4	1.50
Mark Leiter Jr rp	2	2	3.18	13	0	3	0	1	11.1	10	5	4	4	16	1.24
Tim Hill rp	2	0	3.55	11	0	2	0	0	12.2	9	5	5	4	7	1.03
Carlos Rodon sp	3	3	3.68	6	6	0	0	0	36.2	18	17	15	17	45	0.95
Ryan Yarbrough rp/sp	0	0	4.40	7	0	2	0	0	14.1	13	7	7	6	15	1.33
Carlos Carrasco sp/rp	2	2	5.33	6	6	0	0	0	27.0	29	16	16	9	20	1.41
Clarke Schmidt sp	0	1	5.52	3	3	0	0	0	14.2	12	9	9	9	15	1.43
Will Warren sp/rp	1	1	5.63	6	6	0	0	0	24.0	22	15	15	12	26	1.42
Tyler Matzek rp	0	0	9.00	2	0	0	0	0	2.0	3	2	2	3	2	3.00
Devin Williams rp	0	2	9.00	11	0	7	0	3	9.0	10	11	9	7	8	1.89
Marcus Stroman sp	0	1	17.36	2	2	0	0	0	4.2	7	9	9	6	4	2.79
Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP

Starters

So, it is fair to say that most was expected this season (as we have already noted) from Max Fried, and as we also have already noted after a slight hesitation, he didn’t let the team down in anyway. Having a pitcher who starts with 5 wins and 1 no-decision from six starts takes an awful lot of weight off a team like the Yankees who have key pitchers like Cole and Luis Gil unavailable.

Carlos Rodon has had an up-and-down start this season. He took a win in his start in March, and he took 3 wins and 3 losses in his 6 starts in April. His WHIP of 1.13 in March and 0.95 in April says more than most of his stats. He has been solid and a little unfortunate and more run support would have changed those win/loss figures considerably.

With Clarke Schmidt unavailable, Marcus Stroman was the starter in the third game in March and in 2 games in April before declaring himself injured. It is hard to like Stroman. After being placed in the bullpen at the end of last season, he spent Spring training muttering about how he wasn’t going to work in relief and “I am a starter” seemed to become his mantra. He’s up to replace Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo in the category of “not a team player”. All this fuss and nonsense is one thing, but Stroman’s contribution before his apparent injury is another. His March start saw him go 4.2 innings for a 5.79 ERA.Thankfully, the bullpen, that he won’t join, bailed him out and the game was a Yankees’ win. In April, everything got worse. He pitched the same 4.2 innings (albeit in 2 starts), but this time is ERA was 17.36 (worst on team), and his WHIP was 2.79 (second worst on team). After that he slipped quietly away to the injured list with an undiagnosed hip problem. I really don’t know what they are going to do with him when he returns. He needs attitude surgery more than anything. He has zero trade value for all kinds of reasons.

4th starter? Will Warren, I guess to this point. Warren was used as a starter last season and then at the tail end of the year as a reliever, but to be honest if someone had come in for him offering a decent return in a trade then I would have taken the deal. But now with injuries aplenty to the rest of the rotation, he is back to being third or fourth starter. 1 win, 1 loss, 4 no-decisions, 5.63 ERA and 1.42 WHIP. Let’s say he did enough to keep the Yankees in the game and allow a strong bullpen to keep them in touch while Judge and the boys used their lumber to get the team back ahead in most games.

Clarke Schmidt delivered a very similar record when he returned from injury. Given that he hadn’t really been able to engage with Spring Training, this will do for now. The Yankees will be hoping for more as May progresses.

And then there is Carlos Carrasco. The veteran did better than anticipated in Spring Training and made the opening day roster. His debut, in relief, in March was a disaster. It produced an ERA of 13.50 and a WHIP of 2.50 but the Yankees’ lead was big enough that it survived. In April, he was switched to the rotation and achieved most of what the Yankees were looking for. He was marginally better than Warren and Schmidt and obviously better than Stroman. He took a couple of wins and a couple of losses. He’s not a fixture for the longterm, but he is an interesting pawn to have around for the time being.

Relievers

The Yankees’ bullpen was not seen to be one of their strengths despite bringing in Devin Williams, and bringing back Mark Leiter Jr and Tim Hill. However in the period of just over a month that we are covering it is doing just fine, with the exception of Williams.

Luke Weaver, Fernando Cruz, Mark Leiter and Tim Hill (along with Williams) were the most used relievers. Surprisingly, the Yankees had felt the need to bring in a new closer despite Weaver doing so well in that role towards the end of 2024. By the end of April, Weaver was the closer again. In the whole of March and April, he didn’t give up a run, appearing in 12 games. He gathered two saves and his WHIP was less than 1.00. The wisdom of the Yankees needing to sign Williams can once again be called into question.

Fernando Cruz has become a vital part of the Yankees’ relief staff after being brought in from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for catcher, Jose Trevino. He has pitched in 14 games and given up only 3 earned runs. His WHIP in April is 0.83. Leiter pitched in 15 games so far and Hill has pitched in 13. Both pitched to ERAs which hovered around 3.50 and WHIPs of less than 1.50. Good stuff!

Ian Hamilton battled injuries, but did solidly on his return and pitched in 7 games.

Amongst the other members of the bullpen staff was Brent Headrick. He came in as a bit player from the Minnesota Twins and I wasn’t at all clear he would have much of a role in New York this year. He’s done well apearing in 4 games without conceding a run. I suspect he will bounce back and forth between the majors and minors this season.

Amongst the rest were some curiosities. Yoendrys Gomez played to a 3.12 ERA in April, but the Yankees found themselves with too many relievers on hand. Rather than sending someone to Scranton who they could be sure of later calling up again, they chose to designate Gomez for assignment. Gomez was out of options. The Los Angeles Dodgers claimed him off waivers, making it clear that the Yankees had made a severe miscalculation and lost a player who had been a useful if minor player to have in the Bronx. Meanwhile when the Yankees had too few relievers to hand, they brought in former player, Adam Ottavino (twice) as a free agent. Both times, he pitched well without giving up a run and then was placed on waivers, and chose to be a free agent rather than accept an assignment to Scranton (Triple-A). Odd indeed!

Then there was long reliever, Ryan Yarbrough who did okay and who will give the Yankees various options of how to use him in future. Yerry De Los Santos was a little lucky in his one appearance, and Tyler Matzek was very disappointing on the two occasions he appeared in a game