In May, the Yankees went 16-12 and despite Gerrit Cole returning to the roster and Cam Schlittler maintaining his excellent form, the starting rotation was worse than it had been in the months of March and April. Something of a mystery!

Two relievers who were called up briefly did very well – Yovanny Cruz and Yerry De Los Santos – but because of the strength of the bullpen they were soon returned to the minors.

Only Tim Hill and the closer David Bednar struggled.

And as we shall see, the bullpen had a lot of weight to carry as the rotation faired relatively poorly.

Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP
Gerrit Cole sp	1	0	0.00	2	2	0	0	0	12.2	0	0	0	3	12	0.71
Yovanny Cruz rp	0	0	0.00	2	0	1	0	0	2.1	1	0	0	0	3	0.43
Yerry De Los Santos rp	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	3.1	0	0	0	1	5	0.60
Fernando Cruz rp	1	1	1.32	14	0	0	0	0	13.2	9	5	3	5	11	1.02
Cam Schlittler sp	3	1	1.48	5	5	0	0	0	30.1	23	5	5	7	32	0.99
Brent Headrick rp	2	1	2.31	11	0	0	0	0	11.2	11	3	3	4	13	1.29
Paul Blackburn rp/sp	1	0	2.70	9	1	5	0	0	13.1	10	4	4	8	9	1.35
Jake Bird rp	0	0	3.00	12	0	2	0	0	9.0	8	3	3	4	10	1.33
Ryan Yarbrough rp	0	0	3.12	4	0	3	0	1	8.2	7	3	3	3	6	1.15
Camilo Doval rp	0	0	3.27	13	0	4	0	1	11.0	8	4	4	2	6	0.91
Carlos Rodon sp	1	2	3.32	4	4	0	0	0	19.0	12	8	7	13	20	1.32
Will Warren sp	4	1	3.82	6	6	0	0	0	33.0	29	18	14	12	33	1.24
Ryan Weathers sp	1	1	3.86	5	5	0	0	0	30.1	21	15	13	11	35	1.05
Elmer Rodriguez sp	0	0	4.00	2	2	0	0	0	9.0	11	4	4	5	3	1.78
Kervin Castro rp	0	0	4.50	1	0	1	0	0	2.0	2	1	1	0	2	1.00
David Bednar rp	0	1	5.56	11	0	9	0	3	11.1	11	7	7	6	15	1.50
Brendan Beck rp	0	0	6.00	1	0	0	0	0	3.0	2	2	2	3	1	1.67
Max Fried sp	0	2	6.91	3	3	0	0	0	14.1	17	11	11	7	13	1.67
Tim Hill rp	2	2	7.45	14	0	3	0	0	9.2	15	10	8	4	7	1.97
Name/Pos	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	WHIP

Starters

It would take a strong performance for someone from the Yankees’ rotation to do better than Cam Schlittler who has been pre-eminent amongst the pitchers so far this season. As it worked out, and perhaps surprisingly, it was Gerrit Cole who was up to that challenge. Not because Schlittler is a better pitcher than Cole – Cole is after all the staff ace – but because it is, after all, unusual for someone to return after such a long time out and settle so quickly.

Cole pitched 12.2 innings in his first two games and gave up no runs, taking 1 win and 1 no-decision. He gave up no hits and only 3 walks and struck out 12. Quite an amazing return.

Cam Schlittler maintained his sterling form with 3 wins, 1 loss and 1 no-decision in his five starts. His ERA was 1.48 and his WHIP was 0,99. He came in third in strikeouts on the month, behind Ryan Weathers and Will Warren.

Regrettably the remaining starters struggled. Max Fried was already struggling with a 6.91 ERA and a WHIP of 1.67, meaning that he had 0 wins, 2 losses and 1 no-decision when he went on the injured list on the 16th, retroactive to the 14th, with a left-elbow bone bruise.

Warren made 6 starts and took 4 wins, 1 loss and 1 no-decision – but the chief sign of weakness was an ERA of 3.82. There was little difference between that and the ERA delivered up by Weathers (3.86), but Weathers’ 1 win, 1 loss and three no decisions shows that Warren was rather fortunate to have run support this month.

Carlos Rodon was not favoured with outcomes either. He produced 1 win, 2 losses and 1 no-decisions to accompany his 3.32 ERA. His 4 starts were fairly respectable but averaged out at less than 5 innings per start.

Paul Blackburn and Elmer Rodriguez had to stand in the breach for Fried’s injury. We will come to Blackburn in a moment as he was used mostly as a reliever, and his start was intentionally brief. Rodriguez is a highly rated prospect, but his two starts were no better than average. He produced an ERA of 4.00, but avoided any losses and did enough to keep the Yankees in the games in which he played. Notably though, his WHIP was 1.78 which was second worst on the team in the month.

Relievers

The two pitchers who played in most games this month were Fernando Cruz and Tim Hill – but what a contrast. Both have done well until the month of May and Cruz continues to be a dominant member of the bullpen. He appeared in 14 games, taking 1 win and 1 loss. Notably, he pitched to a 1.32 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP. Hill on the other hand, who also played in 14 games, ran up a 7.45 (team worst) in May and a 1.97 WHIP (team worst).

Camilo Doval, in his 13 games, led the team in May amongst those relievers who were on the roster the whole month, with a 0.91 WHIP. Jake Bird in his 12 appearances also significantly improved his form after a dismal April. He only pitched 9 innings in those 12 games. Both Doval and Bird pitched shorter periods in their appearnces.

Brent Headrick whilst mostly flying under the radar and receiving little attention from the media, continues to do well. He took 2 wins (and 1 loss) in his 11 appearances. A 2.31 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP emphasis how well he is doing and it is striking (pun intended) that he has more than 3 times more strikeouts than walks.

Closer David Bednar continues to be inconsistent and in May, he played to a 5.56 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP and whilst most of the games he finished were save opportunities, he took only 3 saves.

Ryan Yarbrough is the least used of the regular relievers and this month, as a long reliever, he appeared in only 4 games. He pitched to an average of over two innings per appearance. The only long reliever, Paul Blackburn along with that one aforementioned where he was used briefly as a starter, he appeared in 8 games as a reliever and finished out 5 games, all of which the Yankees were already destined to lose.

Yovanny Cruz, Yerry De Los Santos, Brendan Beck, and Kervin Castro made brief visits to the Yankees roster, with Cruz and De Los Santos being the best among the 4. Both pitched to a 0.00 ERA with Cruz appearing in 2 games and De Los Santos in 1. Both produced WHIPs of less than one, and both will deserve a recall at some point during the season.