In terms of blowing away expectations, no Yankees player came close to the achievements of Michael King. Heading into the season, King’s future was murky. He had undergone significant elbow surgery, but recovered extremely well. As the team’s most valuable reliever in 2022 (when healthy), the Yankees took a phased approach to ramping King back up. His velocity was down for a couple of months, he never pitched without at least two days of rest, and his approach wasn’t changed until the pitching staff was in dire need.
Hoping for around 60-70 innings out of the bullpen was probably close to a 90th percentile outcome.