Quick Hit: Making the Case for Andrew Bailey

The New York Yankees have had a revolving door to their bullpen and an express trolley going in between Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and PNC Field in Scranton for much of this season. New York has seen 21 different relievers on the roster and nine different prospects make their Major League debut out of the Yankees bullpen this season and it seems like every 10 days or so we see the likes of Branden Pinder, Caleb Cotham, Chris Capuano and others coming up from Triple-A for a fresh arm in the Yankees bullpen but one arm that has yet to come up yet this season is Andrew Bailey. Why not?

After spending basically two seasons in the Yankees organization his right throwing shoulder seems to finally be healthy. Bailey has spent the last two seasons rehabbing a torn shoulder labrum and a torn shoulder capsule, both of which are usually career-ending injuries, and has had multiple setbacks during his Yankees tenure in the minor leagues. With that in mind, and let's face it Bailey's shoulder could go kaput at any second, why don't the Yankees bring him up now instead of wasting his bullets in Triple-A? A 40 man roster spot would need to be cleared for Bailey but the Yankees have shown that not to be a problem this season. Bailey is one Chris Martin DFA away from being in the Bronx and adding a veteran arm to the Yankees already dynamic bullpen that finds themselves in the middle of a pennant race.

Rosters expand in less than a week and Bailey could add another power arm to the trio of Adam Warren, Chasen Shreve and Justin Wilson as the Yankees continually look to shorten the game and take the pressure off their starting pitchers. Bailey is a relatively fresh arm throwing just 32 innings at the time of this writing and a veteran arm that has seen postseason runs in his career with the Oakland Athletics and the Boston Red Sox. Bailey could prove invaluable in a 6th or 7th inning role in the Bronx as the team looks to not only reach the postseason but also looks to evaluate talent before finalizing a potential playoff roster.

Could you imagine a bullpen of Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, Justin Wilson, Chasen Shreve, Adam Warren, Andrew Bailey and Bryan Mitchell? That's game over.

Here's the stat line for the current Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders closer:

Year	Lg	W	L	ERA	G	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9
2015	AA,AAA,A+,Rk	3	0	1.97	26	6	32.0	24	10	7	3	11	40	1.094	6.8	0.8	3.1	11.2

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table