Defined Roles Won’t Matter in this Yankees Bullpen

Earlier this week Yankees manager Joe Girardi was interviewed and finally closed the door on a subject that was undoubtedly bothering many, whether Aroldis Chapman would be the Yankees closer or not. Many of us, myself included, thought that Chapman being the closer in a free agency walk year (suspension pending) was enough information to make the determination that he would be the closer but some would rather hear it from the horse’s mouth rather than speculate, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The horse has spoken and entering Spring Training camp this season Chapman will be the Yankees closer and the first question I got on twitter was whether Andrew Miller should pitch the 7^th inning or the 8^th inning in 2016? My response? What does it matter?

Defined roles are not going to be a thing in the Yankees bullpen in 2016. Chapman is the closer on the depth chart and on Yankees.com, sure, but that doesn’t mean he is necessarily going to close out every game that he’s available to close in my opinion. Plus it doesn’t matter if Miller, the reigning Mariano Rivera Award winner for being the best relief pitcher and closer in the American League in 2015, pitches the 6^th, the 7^th, the 8^th or the 9^th. It doesn’t matter to him, his words, and it doesn’t matter to the team.

What does it matter that you’re stacking up left-handed arms in the 8^th and 9^th or spreading them out in the 7^th and 9^th with Dellin Betances sandwiched between when all three of them can get left-handed hitters out as equally as they can right-handed hitters out?

Dellin Betances:

Split	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
vs RHB	70	179	19	27	3	4	12	23	74	.175	.285	.273	.558
vs LHB	71	153	7	18	4	2	5	17	57	.135	.243	.211	.454

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Aroldis Chapman

Split	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
vs RHB	65	202	17	34	2	3	8	22	78	.194	.297	.257	.554
vs LHB	49	76	2	9	2	0	0	11	38	.143	.276	.175	.451

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Andrew Miller

Split	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
vs RHB	60	199	11	23	3	4	0	17	79	.131	.227	.217	.444
vs LHB	31	47	5	10	1	1	1	3	21	.233	.277	.326	.602

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

As you can see by the stats above it doesn’t matter who pitches the 7^th, who pitches the 8^th and who pitches the 9^th. The game, more times than not, is over either way. Personally I’d like to see Miller pitch the 8^th and Betances pitch the 7^th only because Betances can be a multiple-inning reliever. Limiting him to a single inning in the 8^th was fine last season when the Yankees didn’t have a pitcher like Miller behind him but this season you may need to see Dellin pitch the 6^th and 7^th while Miller and Chapman knock down the 8^th and 9^th. There will be lots of mixing and matching and frankly there should be, that’s what keeps the opposing team and manager guessing.

It’s a game of cat and mouse and the Yankees have the cheese to win. Cheesy analogy I know but it works in this situation for some odd reason.