The Yankees got better as August progressed. Part of this was due to members of the starting rotation getting into their groove after a rough stretch. The most notable of them was Max Fried who struggled throughout almost all of August, but then hit his stride in his last August appearance.

Alongside the other starters, the relief corps were much better than they had been in July.

Once more let’s take a look at the statistics for the calendar months and add in some hopefully wise, erudite and timely commentary.

Here are those who featured in August:

Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP
Fernando Cruz rp	0	0	0.00	4	0	0	0	0	4.1	3	0	0	0	6	0.69
Jonathan Loaisiga rp	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	0.1	1	0	0	0	0	3.00
Luke Weaver rp	1	1	1.23	13	0	1	0	0	14.2	8	2	2	4	20	0.82
Brent Headrick rp	0	0	1.35	4	0	1	0	0	6.2	4	1	1	4	6	1.20
Cam Schlittler sp	1	1	1.60	6	6	0	0	0	33.2	22	6	6	11	39	0.98
David Bednar rp	3	0	2.70	11	0	7	0	3	13.1	8	4	4	5	20	0.98
Will Warren sp	2	1	2.84	5	5	0	0	0	25.1	24	14	8	9	21	1.30
Carlos Rodon sp	4	0	3.15	6	6	0	0	0	34.1	22	12	12	20	30	1.22
Mark Leiter Jr rp	1	1	3.24	11	0	3	0	0	8.1	7	3	3	1	3	0.96
Luis Gil sp	2	1	3.68	6	6	0	0	0	29.1	28	13	12	19	29	1.60
Tim Hill rp	0	1	3.85	11	0	4	0	0	11.2	14	5	5	3	8	1.46
JT Brubaker rp	0	0	4.50	1	0	1	0	0	2.0	2	1	1	2	2	2.00
Camilo Doval rp	0	1	4.76	13	0	4	0	1	11.1	12	10	6	8	13	1.76
Devin Williams rp	0	2	4.91	12	0	2	0	1	11.0	9	8	6	3	22	1.09
Max Fried sp	2	1	5.14	5	5	0	0	0	28.0	32	16	16	10	29	1.50
Yerry De Los Santos rp	0	1	6.97	8	0	2	0	0	10.1	12	10	8	5	8	1.65
Paul Blackburn rp	0	0	13.50	2	0	2	0	0	5.1	10	8	8	2	2	2.25
Jake Bird rp	0	1	27.00	3	0	1	0	0	2.0	4	7	6	2	4	3.00
Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP

Starters

The Yankees were able to rely on 5 starters in August, with no notable injuries amongst that tight knit little group. Obviously, Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt were still unavailable, but the three experienced arms and the two rookies blended well. As previously mentioned Fried was struggling but he bounced back for a 7 innings appearance at home to Washington on the 27th where he gave up only 4 hits and 1 run.

It must be admitted though that prior to that Fried had been poor with his ERA on the month up to 5.14 and his WHIP at a skyscraping 1.50

Youth is having its day. Cam Schlittler started 6 games, averaging over 5 and a 1/2 innings per game. His pitch speed is up in the high nineties on a regular base. He was unfortunate to only take one win but he added to this 4 no decisions and only one loss. His fellow rookie, Will Warren was able to take 2 wins in only five starts. His ERA was much higher than Schlittler’s. Schlittler pitched to 1.60 0n the month compared to Warren’s 2.84. Also as we consider WHIP, we see Schlittler below one with Warren at 1.30.

Luis Gil has bounced back well from injury and seems to get stronger as the season goes along. He made 6 starts, resulting in 2 wins and 1 loss. His WHIP of 1.60 is too high and the Yankees will be looking for him to bring that down considerably in the coming weeks as the end of the season approaches.

Finally, in this category, we have Carlos Rodon who is having a very good season and has a realistic chance of leading the American League in Wins at season’s end. This month, he took four wins, 2 no-decisions, and no losses. His ERA of 3.15 and WHIP of 1.22 allowed him to be ahead of Fried and also he closed the gap in that aforementioned wins column on his teammate.

Relievers

Generally speaking, it is a good guide to see whom Aaron Boone thinks he can trust to deliver or who he needs to rely on by seeing who he uses 10 or more times in relief appearances in any given calendar month.

In August, this obviously changed as he found his bullpen switched up by Brian Cashman’s activity in the trade market as the deadline had approached.

So, who appeared 10 or more times?

Luke Weaver (13 apps), David Bednar (new signing, 11), Mark Leiter Jr (11), Tim Hill (11), Camilo Doval (new signing, 13), and Devin Williams (12).

Of these, only one inclusion on the list surprises me (Williams) and only one exclusion (Jake Bird).

Williams’ season in New York looks unlikely to be remembered as a pretty one, partially because there is no reason to expect it to hugely improve and partially because, hopefully, he will not be back. He has steadied down a little since he has had the burden of being the closer lifted from his shoulders, but let’s face it, it is still not a good month. His ERA of 4.91 is better than other months, but it is still the highest of the 6 regularly used relievers listed above.

Jake Bird‘s arrival in New York must feel like his own personal nightmare and given that the Yankees wanted him in July, they showed remarkably little patience with him when he faltered. After 3 disastrous appearances (ERA 27.00, WHIP 3.00), Cashman and Boone were ready to ship him off to Scranton (Triple-A), where things went from bad to worse. By the end of August, his time at the Railriders had seen him concede 7 runs in 8 2/3 innings.

Of the others we mention above, Weaver has been exceptional. He does suffer the odd glitch, but this amiable guy really is somebody that the Yankees should be trying to re-sign for 2026. In August, he only gave up 2 earned runs, resulting in a 1.23 ERA and 0.82 WHIP.

Next, we come to David Bednar. He is the new closer and he is tough and resillient and does not go down easily. 3 wins and 3 saves gives some impression of his calibre and he is settling in just fine and dandy.

Mark Leiter Jr doesn’t always convince me but overall he had a good August. He only pitched 8 1/3 innings across 11 appearances, which shows his month was a little uneven and sometimes he has to be lifted early, but his 0.96 WHIP speaks volumes about his good days.

Tim Hill is also great on his good days. He averages just over an inning per appearance but this month he was allowing too many people to get on base.

Camilo Doval was uneven in his performances since arriving in New York – well ahead of Bird but he was never going to match Bednar. We hope to see him settle down more in this new month.

And the remainder? Well, first two guys who the Yankees would normally depend upon – Fernando Cruz and Jonathan Loaisiga. Cruz has come back from time out and was exceptional in his four appearance. Loaisiga has so many periods where he struggles with injury and with only one outing this month, he is injured again and looks likely done for the season. He has a right-flexor strain.

Brent Headrick was another player who started the month well with 4 appearances seeing him deliver 6.2 strong innings. However, a left forearm contusion took him to the injured list. He is likely to start a rehab assignment in early September. Whether he will return before the end of the season remains uncertain.

JT Brubaker, on the face of it, seemed to be having a reasonably good season. However, there are guys in this world who look much harder at “analytics” than I do. Brubaker pitched in one game in August. Nothing horrible, nothing great – ERA 4.50. But the Yankees were done and released him because of something I was seeing. A week later on the 13th, he signed for the San Francisco Giants. Let’s hope that this oft injured pitcher can make a future for himself.

Finally, we come to Yerry De Los Santos who was poor and Paul Blackburn who was horrible. De Los Santos is uneven and his ERA of 6.97 this month, landed him in Scranton from where he is unlikely to return this year. Blackburn was picked up on waivers from the New York Mets and it seems like he is Boone’s mop-up guy in games that the Yankees have already effectively lost. In his debut, he was just left out to roast in the sun until the game was done, and consequently he has a 13.50 ERA across two lengthy relief performances. He is better than he looks on paper.