The most important Yankee in 2022? It’s not Gerrit Cole or Aaron Judge, according to former Mets manager Bobby Valentine.
No, it’s Aroldis Chapman.
“The couple decades of Yankees dynasties revolved around the bullpen,” Valentine said during his first weekly audience on Mike Francesa’s new BetRivers podcast. “I think that if it’s going to be above [a 91.5-win over/under] for the Yankees, it rests on the shoulders of Chapman.
“Last year he kind of skated in that his reliability was not what was needed for that Yankee team.