Can the Yankees make a three-headed bullpen monster work?

If the Yankees wanted, their three-headed monster of relief could dominate without precedent. But what about the rest of the bullpen and starting staff?

By Dave Brown

Dec 28, 2015 at 7:39 pm ET • 3 min read

If one likened the New York Yankees pitching staff to a human body, it would be described as all rear end. Baby got back. The Yankees woke up Monday morning already having two of the best late-inning relievers in Major League Baseball with Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances, and they added Aroldis Chapman in a trade in the afternoon with the Cincinnati Reds that transforms their bullpen into a three-headed monster of unprecedented proportions. At least the back end of it. But middle relief is weak, and the starting rotation, while talented, is full of question marks.

So, an obvious question emerges: Does it make sense for the Yankees to go into 2016 using Miller, Betances and Chapman at the back end of the bullpen, with the rest of the staff needing tweaking? It seems like a potential misplacement of resources, which have become important to the Yankees in recent seasons, despite record cash flowing in from the YES Network deal. And New York's bullpen was hardly a weak spot in 2015 when it reached the AL wild card. As a group, only the Orioles and Astros relievers performed better than the Yankees pen in 2015, as measured on Fangraphs by wins above replacement.

Now they have Chapman. He, Miller and Betances combined for a 1.70 ERA with 347 strikeouts in 212 2/3 innings in 2015. Hypothetically speaking, if manager Joe Girardi worked his relievers a certain way, the Yankees could shorten about 40 percent of their games by one-third. Miller could be used to get out of a jam in the sixth inning, Betances could be a bridge to the ninth and Chapman could put the opponent away. In recent seasons, the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals have shown what dominant pitching at the end of games can do for a team. No doubt that has crossed Brian Cashman's mind.

Of course, baseball seasons never happen as cleanly as that. In a playoff series, sure, Girardi could conceivably go to the pen with a lead in the fourth inning and there'd be a good chance the game would end in New York's favor. But there's a matter of getting through April, May, June, etc, before worrying about strategizing against the upstart White Sox in a hypothetical wild-card game and beyond.

And considering what the pitching staff looks like before Girardi would have a chance to use Miller, Betances and Chapman, it might behoove them to re-think this three-headed monster idea. Assuming that all of them are kept, the Yankees would be committing about $23 million to three relief pitchers in 2016. It's a lot of money (to most teams) but it's not even about that. It's about an allocation of talent, a division of labor, the Deptartment of Redundancy Dept.

The Yankees lack great starting pitching, though Cashman said in a press teleconference Monday that "the rotation is full." And here is that "full" rotation: Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Severino, CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda and Nathan Eovaldi, with Ivan Nova waiting in the wings as excess. There's no doubt about his ability, but Tanaka's future remains precarious with every start because of a partially torn elbow ligament. Severino looks like a great prospect, but he has 11 major-league starts to his credit. Sabathia is 35, has been in decline for three years, and is dealing with personal issues that are far more important than baseball. Pineda hasn't turned 27 yet, but he posted a 5.80 ERA in the second half in 2015. Eovaldi made encouraging progress under coach Larry Rothschild, but he's still fine-tuning his split-finger fastball into a true out-pitch.

If the rotation struggles collectively, it would be up to Chasen Shreve, Nick Rumbelow, Branden Pinder and Nova to keep the Yankees in games until the Three Musketeers arrive to save the day at the Seventh-Inning Stretch. The Yankees simply don't have enough depth to make this work.

It makes sense to trade someone from the bullpen, preferably Miller, who is owed $27 million over the next three seasons. Improve the rotation that way and get two middle relievers with smaller salaries in order to satisfy the club's bottom line while giving Girardi the depth he surely will need. The Yanks won't get to use their diabolical bullpen booty in the playoffs unless they themselves in the middle and up top.