By Eddie Sapienza
The
Yankees were supposed to have the best bullpen in baseball. So far the bullpen hasn't really lived up to that. We all knew coming into the season that
Dellin Betances and
Andrew Miller would be our best guys. Yet we never found out who was the official closer. Manager Joe Girardi used Andrew Miller at the closer's role. So we know that he is the closer. Recently Miller went down with a forearm injury and went on the DL so Betances had to step up.
Justin Wilson is another guy in the bullpen who also had to step up with Miller's injury. He moved into the 8th inning role. In the beginning of the season he was struggling but has been better since. Wilson was acquired in a trade that sent backup catcher
Francsico Cervelli to the
Pirates. The Yankees had a great punch for the last 2 innings. It took them some time to figure out who could be the 7th inning guy.
Justin Wilson will most likely get that role once Andrew Miller comes back which I like. Another guy I think deserves the 7th inning role is
Chasen Shreve . Shreve was in the trade that sent
David Carpenter and him to the Yankees for prospect
Manny Banuelos. Carpenter pitched awful for the Yankees and was then DFAd and traded to the
Nationals for prospect
Tony Renda. At first
Joe Girardi trusted Carpenter in situations like these and on Opening Day was probably going to be the 7th inning guy.
Another guy in the bullpen started the season as a starter and then was moved to the bullpen.
Chris Capuano has struggled as a starter but I thought he has been better in the bullpen. He is used as the long man and was used when
Nathan Eovaldi only went 0.2 innings and gave up 8 runs.
Esmil Rogers was absolutely awful throughout the whole season. Thankfully he was optioned down to Triple-A and hasn't done much better their. I don't expect to see Rogers back anytime soon. When Rogers was optioned
Sergio Santos was called up. Santos pitched in a bases loaded jam with 0 outs and was able to get out of it. Then he was placed on the 15- Day DL and now has to undergo Tommy John surgery.
Rookies- The Yankees have used a lot of Rookies this year in the bullpen. They include
Brandon Pinder,
Diego Moreno,
Jose Ramirez,
Jacob Lindgren,
Jose de Paula, and
Danny Burawa.
Nick Rumbelow was also called up but hasn't been used yet. Pinder has pitched well in his limited appearances. Moreno has also pitched pretty well since coming up in his 1 appearance. Jose Ramirez was awful and Jacob Lindgren wasn't great but I want to see Lindgren back soon. De Paula and Burawa both did bad and were sent down but only appeared in one game. They should give them a chcnace before sending them down.
The Yankees bullpen has been pretty good but it could always be better. I hope to see an improvement in some guys and others just need to keep up what they're doing.