There’s a whole lot to love about the Yankees bullpen. Call it the “bully” like David Cone or somehow the “ballpit” like Nick Jonas, whichever way you slice it, the Yankees have the consensus top relief core in baseball. The ‘pen sports a 2.13 ERA and a 70 OPS+ against in 2023, both tops in MLB.
Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Domingo Germán, Clarke Schmidt, and Jhony Brito is certainly not the early-season starting rotation Yankees’ fans envisioned, and the patchwork starting staff has huge ramifications for the bullpen’s workload. Brito especially was emergency depth coming into this season, and the alarm bells ring even louder now that Carlos Rodón faces a protracted recovery after suffering a setback.