To say the least, he Yankee’s long-reliever situation is, well, clogged. With the signing of Chan Ho Park, the Yankees have 4 viable long-relief/mid-relief options to sort through in Spring Training. These options include the newly-acquired Park, Alfredo “Ace” Aceves, Chad Gaudin, and Sergio Mitre. Contractually speaking, all of the above pitchers are on one-year deals with Park to earn 1.2 mil in 2010, Ace earning 407,000 dollars, Gaudin netting 2.95 mil, and Mitre to earn .85 million. Gaudin and Mitre’s contracts are not guaranteed, so they could be released in spring training and the Yankees wouldn’t be on the hook for their contracts. Now all 4 of these pitchers are starters by trade, but their success has been questionable. The last time Chan Ho Park had an ERA under 5 in a full season as a starter was 2001. Mitre has a career ERA of 5.56 and pitched pretty badly as a starter for the Yankees last season. Gaudin has only pitched 2 full seasons as a starter (mid-4 ERA both seasons), but has had relative success in a bullpen role. Ace, for the most part, pitched very well out of the ‘pen for the Yankees last season (3.54 ERA, 1.01 WHIP), and is capable of making a spot start.
Now, it is pretty clear that the Yankees won’t be able to take all 4 of these guys. There just isn’t enough room in the bullpen to house all of these arms who will be doing (more or less) the same job. At this very early stage of Spring Training, Park seems to be a safe bet to be working out of the bullpen in a mid-relief role, perhaps even a set-up role. He pitched pretty well out of the bullpen for the Phillies last season, with a 2.52 ERA in 50 innings of relief. I definitely see him securing a role in the bullpen. Alfredo Aceves’s effectiveness last season would lead me to believe that he will get a spot as the long-man, or work in middle relief. While Ace can be an effective starter, the rotation is pretty full right now, and his best bet to get time and have success at the major league level is in the bullpen. That is not to say he won’t get a chance in the rotation if somebody goes down… I also see the Yankees keeping Gaudin. While he was effective last season in the spot-start/long relief role, the reason why I see the Yankees keeping him is because he his simply a better option than Mitre. Mitre did not pitch well at any point last season, and Gaudin is more valuable. He gives the rotation depth, while providing the bullpen with a solid arm. With his non-guaranteed money and his poor season last year, I get the feeling that Mitre could be the odd man out.
Granted, I could be jumping the gun here. After all, the Yankees have a whole spring training to figure all of this out. While there are a lot of decisions to be made here, it can’t be a bad thing to have so many viable options to fill in the bullpen and add depth to the rotation. Like Brian Cashman said (via LoHud), “you can never have enough”.
