The pitching in July has not been a pretty picture.

Several relievers came in at the deadline (more on them presently), but the Yankees could also have used a new starter or two, but no-one arrived. They really aren’t in great shape.

Let’s survey the statistics and the relievers and then round out with some commentary:

Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP
Brent Headrick rp	0	0	0.00	2	0	0	0	0	3.0	1	0	0	0	6	0.33
JT Brubaker rp	0	0	0.84	8	0	7	0	0	10.2	5	1	1	3	7	0.75
Yerry De Los Santos rp	0	0	1.69	3	0	0	0	0	5.1	3	1	1	0	7	0.56
Tim Hill rp	1	1	3.46	13	0	1	0	0	13.0	10	7	5	1	7	0.85
Carlos Rodon sp	2	2	4.24	4	4	0	0	0	23.1	19	14	11	10	24	1.24
Cam Schlittler sp	1	1	4.91	3	3	0	0	0	14.2	18	8	8	9	15	1.84
Marcus Stroman sp	2	1	5.11	5	5	0	0	0	24.2	29	14	14	7	18	1.46
Jonathan Loaisiga rp	0	0	5.23	11	0	1	0	1	10.1	16	6	6	4	8	1.94
Will Warren sp	1	1	5.34	6	6	0	0	0	30.1	36	18	18	16	25	1.71
Max Fried sp	2	2	5.54	5	5	0	0	0	26.0	25	21	16	11	21	1.38
Devin Williams rp	1	1	5.73	11	0	10	0	6	11.0	6	7	7	5	16	1.00
Ian Hamilton rp	1	1	6.10	11	1	0	0	0	10.1	9	7	7	4	9	1.26
Luke Weaver rp	1	1	7.15	11	0	1	0	1	11.1	10	11	9	4	12	1.24
Mark Leiter Jr	0	1	9.00	3	0	0	0	0	2.0	2	2	2	2	1	2.00
Clarke Schmidt sp	0	0	9.00	1	1	0	0	0	3.0	4	3	3	2	1	2.00
Allan Winans rp/sp	0	0	9.00	1	0	1	0	0	3.0	5	4	3	1	3	2.00
Scott Effross rp	0	0	9.31	10	0	4	0	0	9.2	15	10	10	3	5	1.86
Rico Garcia rp	0	0	10.13	1	0	0	0	0	2.2	3	3	3	2	2	1.88
Clayton Beeter rp	0	1	14.73	2	0	0	0	0	3.2	5	6	6	4	1	2.45
Jayvien Sandridge rp	0	0	27.00	1	0	0	0	0	0.2	1	2	2	2	2	4.50
Geoff Hartlieb rp	0	0	40.50	2	0	0	0	0	1.1	5	6	6	4	4	6.75
Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP

Starters

The Yankees used 6 starters in July and 1 of what a couple of seasons ago we would have referred to as an opener. The “opener” was Ian Hamilton and since he pitched in 10 games as a reliever, we will deal with him in the next section.

Two of the pitchers that the Yankees had used as starters on occasions found themselves leaving the major league club. Carlos Carrasco who didn’t play at the major league level in recent weeks, found himself bound for the Atlanta Braves in exchange for cash. Also Allan Winans, who had only had one very poor outing as a 9th inning reliever, found himself back on the shuttle back to Scranton (Triple-A)

Meanwhile, Luis Gil found himself involved in a couple of reasonably successful rehab assignments and looks set for an August return to the Bronx.

On the other side of the coin, Clarke Schmidt found himself leaving his July 3 start in Toronto early. He pitched only three innings, giving up 4 hits, 2 walks and 3 earned runs. He was dealing with tightness in his right forearm, but few expected the announcement that was to come. He would need “Tommy John surgery” because of damage to his right ulnar collateral ligament. This will be the second time that Schmidt will have undergone this surgery – the first time being in his junior year at the University of South Carolina. He is unlikely to pitch again until 2027.

With all these difficutlies, the Yankees were going to need to find a starter to fill Schmidt’s spot in the rotation. Unable to bring in anybody from outside, they promoted Cam Schlittler from the minors. He had begun the season at the Somerset Patriots (AA) where he had pitched 4-5 with a 2.38 ERA. This led to him being promoted to Scranton, where he went 2-1 with a 3.80 ERA. Crucially, for the two outfits, he had struck out 99 in just over 76 innings. While the Yankees could not expect him to continue at that pace, he has struck out 15 in 14.2 innings in July. On the downside, he gave up 18 hits and 9 walks. His ERA of 4.91 isn’t great and his WHIP of 1.84 is poor. He is averaging less than 5 inning per start, but in a rotation where nobody is setting the world alight, he will continue to get his chances.

The best of the starters this month was Carlos Rodon and even he pitched to a 4.24 ERA and 1.24 WHIP. He achieved 2 wins, but also 2 losses. He averaged nearly 6 innings per start, giving up only 19 hits, but his total walks were in double figures too.

Schlittler’s unremarkable record was second among the starters, and then in third in terms of quality was Marcus Stroman, who was in the team initially more because of necessity than because he made any friends at the club. He took 2 wins, 1 loss and 2 no-decisions and to be honest things could be worse if he hadn’t been an option. He’s giving up way too many hits and walks, but he is managing to get out of some tight corners.

Fourth was Will Warren who continued to produce impressive figures in the strikeout column (25 this month), but gave up 36 hits and 16 walks to show a 5.34 ERA and 1.71 WHIP in July.

Max Fried had an excellent first half of the season, but as the year has gone along his performance has faded. In July, he made 5 starts, producing 2 wins, 2 losses and 1 no-decision. His WHIP was second best among the starters with only Rodon ahead of him, but his ERA (5.54) was the worst. There’s a conundrum here that needs to be solved. Fried is a player on whom the Yankees need to be able to see stellar performances from and they have disappeared at the present time.

Relievers

In previous months, the Yankees have been able to depend on more than ten performances in a month from Tim Hill, Luke Weaver, Fernando Cruz, and Mark Leiter Jr.

Cruz last pitched on June 27th and missed the whole of July. Leiter pitched only 3 games in July (on the 1st, 3rd and 6th). He then left the game with a stress fracture in his left leg and then landed on the injured list, although to be honest, his performances in the three games (2 innings pitched, 2 Earned runs, 9.00 ERA) suggested there might well have been something wrong well before he went on the IL. Leiter, himself, dated the injury to a “pop” he felt when running down a fielding play trying to get out Elly De La Cruz in Cincinnati on June 24th.

So, the Yankees were more than ever dependent on Weaver and Hill. Now. let’s just say that Weaver was not quite himself when he returned from injury on the 20th of June. Not only did he find he was no longer the closer, but he gave up an alarming 4 homers in 7 games (5.1 innings) a most un-Weaver like statistic – the majority of which fell in July. Although his performance had started to settle well before the end of the month, this still left Weaver – a vital bullpen component – with a 7.15 ERA on the month.

Which then left an enormous burden on Hill and thankfully he was up to the mark. He pitched in 13 games for a 0.85 WHIP. Not everything went well for him but he was far ahead of the rest of the motley crew.

This put extra pressure on Devin Williams, Jonathan Loaisiga, Ian Hamilton and Scott Effross.

Devin Williams was back in the closer’s role when Weaver was no longer available and let’s say his form was patchy. On July 2, in Toronto, he was terrible, giving up 2 earned runs on a hit and 2 walks, to concede the loss. However, in his next four games he really hit his groove – not giving up a hit or a run nd gathering a win or 2 saves. Would the real Devin Williams please stand up?

The next two games were poor but he got away with it, even managing to add a save to his total. And then there were two more good games and two more saves, leading up to July 29th where things began to go south again. In his last two games of July (29th, 30th), he gave up 2 hits, 2 walks, 3 earned runs and it is all perplexing and confusing. I wish that Devin Williams had never come to the Bronx, that none of the players in the Bronx had been allowed to wear beards to appease him and we weren’t having to contend with the 5.73 July ERA has produced in one of his better months. Waiting for the next meltdown.

Jonathan Loaisiga wasn’t sparkling in July, but he was better than most and he ate up innings. He played in 11 games. He didn’t take any losses and he stood in the gap for many a missing presence despite a WHIP that was way too high.

Ian Hamilton made a start (of sorts), albeit lasting only 1 inning, giving up 3 hits, 1 walk and 3 runs. The idea was a mistake, but Hamilton was willing to try. His 10 relief appearances produced a continuation of one of his worst months since becoming a Yankee and ended up with him ending to Scranton on August 1 to make room for the new signings. There are others I would rather have seen demoted or released on that day.

Scott Effross continues to be a perplexing problem for the Yankees. After beginning the season on the injured list, he spent a little time on the major league roster in June (playing in only 1 game) before heading back to Scranton and then returning in July for 10 appearances. When the Yankees signed him from the Cubs in 2022, they had high expectations for the young pitcher. He has never really lived up to those expectations. His form in the later games of July was very poor and by the 26th he was headed back to Scranton. His 9.31 ERA and 1.86 WHIP suggest this might that this might be his last season on the Yankees’ 40 man roster.

There were, of course, other players who made appearances albeit on a lesser number of occasions. Some did better than others.

Brent Headrick pitched in 2 games. Across those 2 games, he pitched 3 innings and didn’t concede any runs. This was despite not being added to the roster until July 27. He gave up one hit for a 0.33 WHIP.

Then, J.T. Brubaker. He played in 8 games, 7 of the appearances coming when the Yankees were behind in the 9th inning. He gave up a run against the Mets on July 5. Otherwise, there were 5 hits and 3 walks. He’s doing well but the Yankees don’t seem to have a lot of confidence in him.

I like the look of Yerry De Los Santos, but the Yankees only used him in three games in July. However, it must be noted that he spent much of the month on the injured list and then on a rehab assignment, before being fit to pitch for the first time on the 26th. His three appearances came after that date. He pitched 5.1 innings for 3 hits, and 1 run. All of these hits and walks came in that first game on the 26th. After that he just shut everybody down. He gave up no walks this month.

The saga of Rico Garcia was a peculiar one. The New York Mets designated him for assignment and he needed to clear waivers. The Yankees claimed him and added him to their roster. He gave up 3 runs in 2.2 innings for the Yankees and they in their turn designated him for assignment only to see him claimed by the Mets. Very odd. Talk about being the last man on the roster…

Clayton Beeter played in two games and saw a July ERA of 14.73 develop. He lost one of the two games, pitching 3.2 innings, for 5 hits and walks for a 2.45 WHIP. It was no surprise when the Yankees off-loaded him on the 26th as the deadline approached in exchange for Amed Rosario. The only surprise was that the Washingon Nationals still wanted him.

Jayvien Sandridge and Geoff Hartlieb are perhaps names for the future, but they are not for now. Sandridge played in one game in his short-term call up. He pitched up 0.2 innings, giving up one hit, two walks and 2 runs for 27.00 ERA and a 4.50 WHIP. What could be worst than that? Well, Hartlieb. He played in 2 games for a 40.50 ERA with 5 hits and 6 runs, not to mention 4 walks – totalling a 6.75 WHIP on the majors.

New arrivals?

The trade deadline saw many relievers come in as the Yankees restocked their bullpen with new arms. First, there was Camilo Doval who was incoming on the 31st in exchange for C Jesus Rodriguez, RHP Trystan Vrieling, 3B Parks Harber, and LHP Carlos De Los Rosa in a trade with the San Francisco Giants.

Then they dealt with the Colorado Rockies, to bring in right-hander Jake Bird in exchange for C Roc Riggio and LHP Ben Shields.

And then another right-hander, David Bednar came in from Pittsburgh. The other half of the trade saw C Rafael Flores, C Edgleen Perez, and LF Brian Sanchez. Let’s hope the Yankees don’t need any young catchers any time soon. That’s three in total on their way out.

Casting a look over the Yankees’ roster after the deadline, I have to say that it doesn’t look any stronger than it did before these moves.