When John Flaherty joined Marc Malusis on WFAN Tuesday morning, he was hoping that Gerrit Cole would have one of his signature outings, in part to give a heavily taxed and depleted bullpen a little bit of a blow.
However, Cole left the game in the fourth inning with left hamstring tightness, and that left the bullpen to get 16 outs on a night where six would have been preferable – and to Flash, that’s just another setback for a bullpen that’s already up against a wall.
“One of my concerns coming into this stretch is that when you have a starting staff that doesn’t give you a lot of innings outside of Cole, there’s a lot of wear and tear on the bullpen – and that fatigue showed up against Baltimore,” Flash said. “Coming down the stretch, there’s a lot of important outs at the back end of the game, and you have to question who’s getting them.
Part of that, Flash noted, falls on the lineup, which just hasn’t been the juggernaut it was expected to be, even given the Yankees’ record through the first five months of the season.
“It’s been so streaky this year. When they won 13 in a row, they found a way to win those close games, and that’s been the story of the whole year,” Flash said. “You thought this lineup would have some blowouts that would help rest the bullpen, but it hasn’t played out that way.”
The big blow in the back end is the loss of Jonathan Loaisiga, who was perhaps the Yankees’ most reliable reliever this season but will miss at least half of September with a rotator cuff strain that required a cortisone shot.
“I think it was a good tandem in Loaisiga and Chad Green for Aaron Boone, in that he could deploy either one for multiple innings on any day. Now you’ve lost Loaisiga, a huge piece, so the first name that jumps out is Clay Holmes,” Flash said. “He has a real good sinker/slider comb, and I’d think he might get the chance to throw some high-leverage innings. You’re trying to mix and match to get the ball to Chapman, who’s been up and down himself, and there’s a lot of question marks at the back end.”
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Holmes pitched in the eighth inning Tuesday following Albert Abreu and Joely Rodriguez, and that combo was a bit of an example of the conundrum Flaherty noted awaits the Yankees’ manager.
“Boone has some really difficult decisions and Sunday is a good example. The team is down 3-0 and your offense hasn’t shown that they’re going to get you back into it, and you put in Brooks Kriske and it gets away from you,” Flash said. “With the rosters only expanding to 28, there’s a fine line where you have to maybe rest some people one day to make sure they’re good a few days from now.”
And that’s not to speak of the ninth inning, where Aroldis Chapman’s roller coaster season continues on a daily basis, the Yankees not knowing if Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde will show up.
“There’s obviously some confidence issues, and there’s been talk of making some adjustments on the mound with his posture. Some days he looks great, and then the next time out, it’s all over the place again,” Flash said. “There are things he’s working on, and you need the success to follow to keep the confidence. You’re going to have to use your bullpen to get to him, and if you have to worry about your closer day to day, there’s nobody backing him up.”
And speaking of that, Flaherty noted that one thing that will help the bullpen is Corey Kluber getting it rolling, and getting deeper into games than he has in his first two starts back off the IL.
“I go back to the beginning of the year, and the first four starts I didn’t think Kluber’s stuff looked great – and then all of a sudden he got it. That’s what I’m seeing from these two starts, is that he’s got some movement, but the stuff didn’t look as sharp as it did when he got rolling,” Flaherty said. “I want to see it again; the guy knows what he’s doing on the mound, and I think that will come, but we’re at the point where you need to start seeing it – and when he goes out there, you have to back him up with someone who can throw some innings, so we need to start seeing him go a little bit deeper.”
Especially, Flash noted, given the struggles of Andrew Heaney, who did pitch a 1-2-3 ninth on Tuesday night, as a reliever.
“Heaney hasn’t worked out, and maybe you can question the other day why he’s in a game in the seventh with a lead, but Aaron Boone has been honest that everyone in the bullpen has to pick it up, so you wonder if his role will be diminished going forward,” Flash said.
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And all in all, Flaherty believes it’s going to be that relief corps that determines the Yankees’ fate.
“The bullpen has been such a big part and such a successful part of this team, but when you play a lot of close games, and you get to September and have 20 games in a row, and you’ve lost some big outs at the back end, you worry,” Flash said. “People need to step up, because they’re going to be leaned upon heavily. If Boone can manage that pen and keep guys fresh, I’ll feel a lot better about it.”
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