With the news being released that Mariano Rivera will likely make his Spring debut on Monday, I thought it would be a good time to assess the state of the Yankees bullpen depth chart. Trying to divine who might be one of the seven relievers to go north is difficult, being that there have been a number of strong performers and that the Yankees have not been clear as to what they want to do in terms of lefties and long relievers.
1) Mariano Rivera- Obviously, he is a lock when healthy.
2) Damaso Marte- Likely to be used as part of an 7th and 8th inning platoon with a righty, with Marte taking, but not limited to, the tough lefties.
3) Brian Bruney- Will get the first crack at splitting the 8th with Marte.
4) Jose Veras- Likely to be right behind Bruney for the late inning righty role.
5) Phil Coke- With Marte acting as a set-up man, Coke will be needed as the situational lefty who can also face righties.
6) David Robertson- He showed flashes of brilliance last season, and has looked strong thus far.
7) Jon Albaladejo- He can go multiple innings, as can the four relievers before him. This allows the Yankees to take their seven best relievers north rather than choosing any of the currently weak crop of long relievers.
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8 ) Edwar Ramirez- If Edwar shows himself to be healthy upon his return, he will make the team.
9) Brett Tomko- If the Yankees go with a long reliever, he has been the best.
10) Mark Melancon- He will be with the team by June, but the fact that he has not faced MLB caliber hitters yet suggests that the team is not going to rush him.
11 & 12) Al Aceves and Dan Giese- Were the favorites for long relief, but both have been bad.
13, 14, 15) Steven Jackson, Mike Dunn, Anthony Claggett- In previous seasons, they would be contenders for jobs. The Yankees have too many options ahead of them to make the club right out of camp.
16) Kei Igawa- His scary track record and lack of a spot on the 40 man roster means that he has no shot of making the roster, no matter how well he pitches.
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Did I leave anyone out? Would you change the order?
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16 Responses to Relief Pitching Depth Chart
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It looks good, however, I’d like to see Melancon join the team earlier than June (it won’t happen, though). Albaladejo was sort of the forgotten solider last year, but he showed some strong qualities before getting injured. Either way, the list is on point.
I think you are overvaluing Veras who does have good stuff but walks to many. He should become trade fodder as soon as another team has an injury.
I would tend to disagree. He’s only 27, coming into his prime, had an excellent year, and has a tremendous fastball. If he retains his control, he should be a valuable bullpen guy. In your defense, his WHIP and FIP are relatively high for his 3.59 ERA, so there are some concerns. I think they’re somewhat overblown, though, because he had a few absolutely awful outing in the middle of the season where he was overused. A few bad outings can skew a reliever’s stats sometimes.
Veras is 28 1/2 years old. He has a high BB/9 rate. Frankly he has good stuff but in not reliable enough imo. I would much rather trade him and bring up Melancon.
The thing with trading him during the season is that if he is pitching well, why would you trade him? if not, who would take him, and what could you get?
I still like Giese in that seventh spot when Joba pitches. He filled in really nicely last year in big spots and did a great job of filling in Joba’s innings.
I think Giese is Aaron Small: The Sequel. He was good last year but with his fringe stuff I don’t see him repeating it.
I think you are putting too much stock in the spring stats. They are good to a point. There has been nothing about Brett Tomko’s career that makes me think he’s going to be successful with the Yankees. Alfredo Aceves and Dan Giese are both better options.
I’m not saying he is going to be successful, I just think that at this point, he is more likely to make the roster. If he had no chance, why sign him.
I don’t think he ever did have much of a chance. My feeling was that he was signed to be a veteran presence in camp. At the start of spring training there were 17 pitchers under the age of 26 or younger.
Plus he is insurance in case the Yankees lose Dan Giese. Angel Berroa or Ramiro Pena are going to have to be added to the 40-man roster now that Arod is going to miss at least a month. Giese is the most likely to get DFA’d. So it was a good idea to sign Tomko even if they didn’t plan on using him because now they aren’t stuck with nobody if Aceves fails.
Bruney will be the 8th inning guy.I’m not sold on Marte and i doubt Joe is either.
I dont know why you say that- he is a lefty with a career 3.29 ERA and 1.25 WHIP. Very solid numbers for a reliever, and he hasnt had a bad year since his second in the majors. He has had a long, productive career.
Good work on your line-up. I can’t see anything wrong with it except maybe putting Melancon back to maybe Sept call-up. Don’t get bent, the only I say this is; if the BP is slip sliding along, why bring him up? We all ready made that mistake. Let him work in AAA unless someone craps out in the show. He is young and has a lot of talent, let’s not rush him. Not being argumentative, I like his chances right now but, we have a lot of talent already and if they do well this year…there will always be a market for one or more of them next year. That way we have a better take on just how good this guy can be and also have some trading chips for 2010.
That’s fair. I agree, they should only bring him up if someone gets hurt or stinks. Otherwise, there is no harm in him getting 1 more year in the minors.
There is no reason to wait on Melancon. If he is better then he should be part of the pen. I am not waiting for him if he is ready. I want the best players on my team.
The thing is, if the other guys pitch really well, and it comes down to one extra run in ST, does that make Melancon better? The other guys have all had some form of success in the majors. He only has one full year since major surgery, so I could see why they might want him to take some more time.