The Yankees, who are looking to return their bullpen to form after a surprisingly shaky collective performance in 2020, have already lost a crucial piece in Zack Britton.
The lefty reliever, who has pitched to an ERA below 2.00 each of the past two seasons for the Yanks, is sidelined with an elbow injury that will require surgery on Monday to remove a bone chip, which could leave him out of the bullpen until after the All-Star break.
Aaron Boone talked about Britton’s injury on Wednesday, saying the Yankees could work to fill Britton’s absence internally, but CC Sabathia would like to see his former team bring in another former Yankee.
Sabathia, talking on his weekly R2C2 podcast with Ryan Ruocco on Thursday, said he thinks the Yankees should bring back David Robertson for what would be his third stint in pinstripes.
“You got D-Rob sitting out there, I think you may need to go ahead and look into signing that guy for the back end of the bullpen, just to help because you’re gonna have so many guys on short pitch counts because they didn’t throw a lot of innings last year,” Sabathia said.
The Yankees did in fact watch Robertson throw last month, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, when the righty threw off a mound in front of multiple MLB scouts at the University of Alabama. Robertson, who won a World Series with Sabathia and the Yankees in 2009 before becoming the team’s closer after Mariano Rivera retired, has thrown just 6.2 innings since signing with the Phillies in 2019. He needed Tommy John surgery that season after just seven games, and a setback in his rehab caused him to miss all of the 2020 season.
Prior to signing with Philadelphia, Robertson was brought back to the Bronx in a trade with the White Sox, and he was once again effective for the Yanks, allowing just four runs in 35 innings down the stretch in 2017, and pitched to a 3.23 ERA in 69.2 innings in 2018.
The Yankees experienced a number of bullpen losses last season, losing Britton to an early hamstring injury, Aroldis Chapman due to COVID-19, and Tommy Kahnle for the season after Tommy John surgery. It showed with the team’s bullpen WAR ranking 19th in the league after finishing first in each of the previous three seasons, per Fangraphs. With pitchers likely needing more rest this season after pitching a drastically shortened season last year, Sabathia believes the Yankees need as many relief arms as they can get, and Robertson is still out there for the taking.
“Coming off the 60-game season, pitchers are going to be on short pitch counts,” Sabathia said. “Seeing the Zack Britton injury, the bullpens are going to be even more important on every club, and [the Yankees] bullpen is he strength of the team. I think with Britton being out 6-8 weeks, you don’t know how long that can turn into if there’s a setback or not.”
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