The New York Yankees are one of the best teams in baseball this season. Their second half may not be as impressive as they were in the first half record of 64-28. But they aren’t as bad as they were in July and August. They look like they should have a record of 96-59, which would make them one of the best baseball teams in the American League in 2022.
In the first half, the Yankees bullpen as a whole had an earned run average of 2.89, which was second in the major leagues. But after the break, the number went up to 3.24. It shows their bullpen issues still remain unresolved.
The Yankees have aces, such as Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes Jr. Luis Severino stands as a rock-solid number three. Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo-led offense as a whole is very strong. With Harrison Bader on the roster, defense is also a strong point.
At the moment, though, the Yankees bullpen has more questions than answers. Chad Green and Michael King are hurt and can’t play. Wandy Peralta is also on the injured list, but he should be back soon. Zack Britton and Scott Effross just got better from their own injuries.
The Yankees bullpen requires some consistency.
A lot of the remaining Yankees bullpen arms have been inconsistent at times in the past. Aroldis Chapman is no longer reliable, and Jonathan Loaisiga had a bad start to the season but has turned things around in recent games. In the first half, Clay Holmes looked like he was from another planet. In the second half, he started to look more like a person.
According to Jim Bowden of The Athletic:
“The Yankees are good enough to win their first World Series since 2009, but only if their bullpen lives up to its potential.”
In fact, the more games there are in a playoff series, the more important it is to have a deep bullpen. The Division Series can only go as far as five games, while the Championship Series and the Fall Classic can go as far as seven games.
With the bullpen’s results being all over the place, the Yankees will need some of the more well-known players to step up during the postseason. However, there is one relief pitcher who must show up because of his talent.
Jonathan Loaisiga is the player in question. He is 27 years old and had his best season in 2021. Loaisiga had a 2.17 ERA, a 3.15 xFIP, 8.79 strikeouts per nine innings, a 79.1% left-on-base-right rate, and a 60.9% ground ball rate in 70.2 innings last year. His HR/FB ratio was 6.7%, and he hit 0.38 home runs per nine innings.
There was a good reason to think that Loaisiga could become one of the best relievers in baseball, but his 2022 season has been a mixed bag. Over 46.1 innings, he has a 4.27 ERA, 6.99 strikeouts per nine, a 62.7% rate of runners left on base, and a 60.3% rate of ground balls.
Most of his good numbers have gone down by a lot, but he has been getting better over the past few weeks. In August, Loaisiga had an ERA of 1.86 over 9.2 innings. In September, he had a 1.93 ERA over 14 innings.
Recently, Loaisiga has been at his best for the Yankees. Since he came back from a shoulder injury earlier this season, his skills have gotten a lot better. In fact, he’s been doing a great job in the month of September. He’s used his sinker 62.4% of the time, which has led to a .256 batting average against and an 18.6% whiff rate. His change-up is by far his weakest pitch. Batters hit .083 percent of the time when he throws it. With his curveball or 4-seam fastball, he hasn’t given up a hit this month (small 4-seam sample size).
In August, his sinker had a batting average of .238, his curveball never gave up a hit, and his change-up had a batting average of .111. His pitch efficiency has gone up a lot, and he now uses his deadly curveball a little less and his sinker a little less. In fact, his curveball breaks horizontally 57% more than the average pitcher’s, but his sinker is average otherwise.
Frankie Montas hurt his shoulder last week, so the Yankees don’t know how much he’ll be able to play in the playoffs. This means that they may go with a three-man starting rotation, they need Loaisiga to become a key player in the playoffs.
Who do you think could be the Yankees pitching X-factor in the playoffs?
