NEW YORK — The Yankees have spent the last two weeks telling everyone their bullpen needs help.
They have leaned on David Bednar in back-to-back high-leverage spots until he could not pitch. They have run Camilo Doval out there for save chances he barely survived. They have used Ryan Yarbrough five times in the past month and watched Paul Blackburn limp through outings with a strikeout rate that would embarrass a position player.
So when a 26-year-old rookie threw 100 mph with a slider that buckled knees, you would think the Yankees had found exactly what they were searching for.
Then the Yankees sent him down.
Cruz did everything the Yankees asked
Yovanny Cruz made his major league debut Wednesday night against the Blue Jays. It could not have gone much better.
Two innings. Six batters faced. Six retired. Three strikeouts. No hits, no walks, no runs. His fastball averaged 99.8 mph and topped out at 100.9. His slider was the put-away pitch on all three strikeouts.
The command was the part that stood out most. Cruz threw 13 of his 15 pitches for strikes. For a 6-foot-8 pitcher whose biggest knock in the minors was control, that number was the headline.
Cruz had waited eight seasons in the minors for this. He had bounced through the Red Sox, Padres, and Cubs systems. The Yankees signed him to a minor league deal on Nov. 8 as their first move of the offseason, and almost nobody noticed. He had never pitched above Double-A.
After the debut, Cruz was asked what the night meant to him. The emotion was hard to miss.
“It was a long road to get here, a lot of injuries, a lot of things that I had to overcome,” Cruz said. “So I’m just really excited and happy to be here.”
Manager Aaron Boone was struck by the moment too. He spoke about watching a player finally reach the level he had chased for nearly a decade.
“It was really cool to see somebody realize their dream of getting to the big leagues,” Boone said. “Everyone’s journey is different, and I think he wore that on his sleeve a little bit, which was, I felt, kind of touching watching him and the appreciation he had for being on a major league field, and then going out and producing.”
Boone also praised the stuff. He made clear the Yankees saw something real.
“He filled up the zone with, you see the stuff,” Boone said. “His slider was really good. Obviously, the fastball, in that 100-101 range. But the key for him is filling up the strike zone. He did it with both pitches, was kind of dominant, and also really efficient.”
The move that makes no sense for the Yankees
Cruz came back to earth on Thursday. Pitching on back-to-back days for the first time all season, he allowed a double and hit a batter in one-third of an inning. He had never even pitched on consecutive days at Triple-A before the Yankees called him up.
That one rough outing should not have erased what came before it.
Yet after Thursday’s 2-0 loss, the Yankees optioned Cruz and outfielder Spencer Jones to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The move cleared a roster spot for Gerrit Cole’s return Friday.
Somebody had to go. The choice of who does not hold up.
Consider the alternatives the Yankees kept instead.
Ryan Yarbrough has been used five times in the past month, a soft-tossing lefty whose role is replaceable. Paul Blackburn is running a 15% strikeout rate, a number that ranks near the bottom of all major league pitchers. Both signed small, incentive-based contracts over the winter. Both could have been designated for assignment with little cost.
The Yankees carry two long relievers in Blackburn and Yarbrough, one more than most contenders roster. Jake Bird, inconsistent at a 4.41 ERA, also holds a minor league option.
In other words, the Yankees had several ways to make room without sending down their hardest-throwing arm with the best swing-and-miss slider in the system.
Instead, the team optioned the 100 mph rookie.
No version of the explanation lines up with the urgency the Yankees have preached. A bullpen that has blown leads and burned out its best arms just demoted the freshest, nastiest weapon it had developed all year.
Why the decision stings for Yankees fans
There is a defensible baseball logic buried in here, to be fair. Cruz has options. Blackburn and Yarbrough would have to be cut outright and lost for nothing. Cruz threw two days in a row and may need rest after a heavy early-season minor league workload. Roster math is rarely about pure talent.
But the Yankees have spent weeks insisting they need bullpen impact now. Cruz provided exactly that. The team’s own actions undercut its own message.
Cruz’s early minor league season showed this was not a fluke. He posted a 0.69 ERA with 17 strikeouts and four walks over his first 13 innings at Triple-A. He cooled off before the call-up, allowing a run in each of his last five appearances, but the raw ability never wavered.
He even leaned on the advice of Fernando Cruz, the veteran Yankees reliever of no relation, who told him to breathe and keep it simple before the debut. Yovanny Cruz did exactly that, then delivered.
Cruz called the debut a beautiful experience. He earned more than one good night and one bad one before being shipped out.
The Yankees will get Cole back, and that is a major addition. But the way they cleared the path raises a question with no satisfying answer. If a 100 mph arm with a plus-plus slider and improved command is the easiest piece to remove, what exactly was the urgency about?
Cruz will be back. Arms like his do not stay in Scranton long. When the Yankees need him again, and they will, the only thing lost is the logic of why he left at all.
What do you think?
