So, we are thinking about the Yankees’ performance in August, and obviously based on their record during the month (10 wins – 18 losses), you wouldn’t expect an upswing in the quality of their pitching performances but in reality there were some positive signs.
Indeed, in the bullpen there were as many significant improvements as there were players who made a significant decline.
Let’s see who the strong performers were, and those who buckled under the strain:
The Yankees went from one game over .500 to ten games over .500 in the course of the month of May – rising from 15-14 to 34-24.
In the process, they moved from 4th in the division to third and remained in close contention for a wild card spot, moving between 2nd and 3rd in that particular race. They were close and back-and-forth with their modern era fierce rivals, the Houston Astros.
None of this could hide the reality of just how far they are behind the Tampa Bay Rays, who were quickest out of the traps and have not slowed to any considerable extent.
The Yankees used 6 different starting pitchers in the last days of the regular season. First was Nestor Cortes, and then spot-starter Chi-Chi Gonzalez. Third was Luis Severino, and then Jameson Taillon in the first half of a doubleheader. The second half of the doubleheader was given to Gerrit Cole, and the final game of the season was handed to Domingo German.
Peculiarly since it gave them a chance to achieve a 100-win season, the Yankees didn’t seem to care to much about that last outing, and benched Aaron Judge, and went for an outfield of Aaron Hicks–Matt Carpenter–Oswaldo Cabrera, and ironically delivered a loss – primarily because of lack of runs.
In the American League Division series, they went with a rotation of Cole-Cortes-Severino, and the two games they lost were blown by relievers. In the American League Championship series, Jameson Taillon who had been an unsuccessful reliever in the previous series started in Game 1, followed by Luis Severino, Gerrit Cole, and Nestor Cortes. Things did not go well.
Aaron Judge…! Aaron Judge…!! The 17 games the Yankees won during September were primarily down to Mr Judge, their superstar outfielder, whose sixty plus home runs guaranteed them their place in the post-season.
But, it obviously wasn’t down to Aaron alone. We’ve already seen how much players like Gleyber Torres contributed to getting things rolling in September. And many of the pitchers, both starters and relievers, added great performances into this strong month.
August…the New York Yankees. Two terms that in 2022 just didn’t go together.
Ten wins, 18 losses. Now, a large part of that as we have seen was due to the batters failing to hit, fielders failing to field. But the pichers were far from guiltless. far from faultless. Starters and relievers alike.
As we mentioned in our previous article, the Yankees just did enough to achieve a .500 win-loss record in July and as we survey the pitchers, we note that many of the starters began to buckle with only Nestor Cortes coming in at the end of the month with an ERA of less then 4.
Michael King was having another excellent month in July, but broke his elbow in the 2/3 of the month and is gone for the long term. You’d never want to see somebody go out with an injury like that, and in reality there is no compensation. However the Yankees did have longterm injuries Domingo German and Jonathan Loaisiga coming back this month. Clarke Schmidt who had been building up his stamina was recalled from Scranton, but oft-injured Luis Severino was lost to the team again.
The Yankees pitching in June was nothing short of amazing. Having 22 wins in a calendar month is one thing, but when 10 of the pitchers your team used have a WHIP of less than one on the month, it is easy to see where the lion’s share of the credit might lie.
The starters underwent a wobble or two, but the bullpen were there to keep the wins coming in. As we survey the statistics of the month, we’ll see very clearly why they kept winning.
The Yankees’ pitchers are on-the-whole doing amazingly this season. If at this time last year, we would have predicted that Clay Holmes would have signed with the Yankees from Pittsburgh and would have the record that shows in our table below, across a whole calendar month, then you would have been convinced that I was fooling. And I would have never have been that foolish.
Furthermore, after two months we are talking about Nestor Cortes as a possible Cy Young candidate, and yet there are 6 members of the bullpen (Nestor has the best May ERA of the starters) who have ERAs superior to his and some of those are people who you’d expect to be in the relief corps all season long. Strange days indeed.
The Yankees were able to call on their main five starting pitchers throughout April, without any of them suffering injury. Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, Jordan Montgomery, Jameson Taillon and Nestor Cortes were available from Opening day, and remained that way.
Domingo German remained on the injured list but the Yankees had anticipated that. There were no new faces amongst the starting pitchers and only a smattering among the relievers. Based on last season, the fanbase wouldn’t be too sure what to expect from this arrangement but as we have already suggested in our article about the batters, things worked out just fine as, after a few bumps, the team cruised to the head of the division.
It was October and the Yankees’ starting rotation was struggling.
While Gerrit Cole was on the active roster, the Yankees elected to not use him in the series with Tampa Bay in order that he might be ready for the Wild Card game.
Jameson Taillon was back from injury and a rehab assignment and ready to go but, as already noted in last month’s report, the Yankees had sent Andrew Heaney to the bullpen and now assigned him outright to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders (Triple-A) – an assignment he would decline and so elect to become a free agent.
Let’s see who rose above the challenges of the end of the year:
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