At least, based on the past few seasons, the Yankees already know how to persevere following a significant injury to a significant player. That’s a coping mechanism that will probably come in handy in light of Tuesday’s bad news about Zack Britton.
Britton, the most reliably-excellent reliever in the Yanks’ bullpen, is headed for surgery to remove a bone chip from his valuable left elbow. We might not see him pitching in the Bronx until summertime, what with necessary recovery and ensuing ramp-up, which means there’s more responsibility heaped upon top relievers Aroldis Chapman, Darren O’Day, Chad Green and Justin Wilson.
And the trickle-down effect plunges deeper than that. We’ve heard a lot this spring about the arms depth the Yankees have built. Now that depth must deliver. Without Britton’s plummeting sinker to get vital, late outs, the Yanks better hope they get real contributions from a list of pitchers that includes Nick Nelson, Adam Warren, Jonathan Loaisiga and others.
There’s more: Covering innings in the season after a pandemic-shortened campaign was always going to be a work-in-progress as teams plot the best — and safest — ways to deploy pitchers while not overloading them a year after they pitched so little.
Add in that the Yankees are featuring two starters — Corey Kluber and Jameson Taillon — who are supremely talented, but also immense injury risks. What if they are only delivering four or five innings each per turn early in the season?
As they figure it all out, the Yanks will have to turn to other pitchers to cover Britton’s share of innings. And those pitchers, frankly, aren’t as good as Britton, who is very, very good.
As a Yankee, Britton has a 2.14 ERA in three seasons. In 2019, his ERA was 1.91. Last year, it was 1.89. In a homer-happy age and pitching in a homer heaven of a home ballpark, he did not allow a single home run over 24 appearances in 2020, including the postseason. He has a career 77.3% groundball rate.
Could the Yankees be OK without him for a long stretch? Perhaps. They should have a monster offense, after all, and Gerrit Cole is their ace.
Seriously, though — they really are optimistic about many of their arms, though it’s also ludicrous to think that they’d express a different opinion in the sunshine of Florida in March.
O’Day could be an important bullpen piece and his submarine delivery will give opposing hitters a much-different look at the plate than the likes of Chapman and Green. Green has terrific strikeout stuff (12 K/9 for his career), but he’s had his shaky moments, too.
Same could be said for the bullpen overall. For years, the Yankees have had a blazing-fast relief corps packed with power arms. It was long considered a club strength, yet last year the Yanks’ were 16th in bullpen ERA (4.51). The average MLB ERA was 4.44.
So even before Britton’s injury, there was room for improvement. While Britton heals, maybe a pitcher on the lower end of the depth chart seizes a chance and gets important innings. Lefty Lucas Luetge, for instance, has allowed two hits and no runs in three outings so far in spring, striking out eight in three innings.
The Yanks could construct their early staff in a variety of ways, perhaps using starters such as Domingo Germán or Michael King as multi-inning piggy-backers. Nelson and Luis Cessa are among those capable of pitching more than one frame, too, and maybe Nick Goody and Kyle Barraclough emerge.
The Yankees constructed a pitching staff with depth and maybe there are enough arms to guide them through the first couple of months of the season.
But this is a team that has endured so many injuries to huge players in recent seasons — and has so many at-risk stars on its roster. It might not be fair, but it’s hard not to wonder: Is Britton’s elbow the harbinger of another painful year?