WHAT’S BEHIND THE YANKEES BULLPEN’S DRAMATIC STRIKEOUT DECLINE — AND WHAT THEY CAN DO TO REVERSE IT

The Yankees’ kingdom for a Dellin Betances.

Or an Andrew Miller. Or Aroldis Chapman. Or even Chad Green.

A staple of Yankees success over the last decade-plus has been having a powerful, deep bullpen that revolved around the strikeout. But in each of the past two seasons, the Yankees ranked 12th in the majors in relief strikeout percentage, albeit at a still-sizable 24.2 percent in 2022 and 24 percent last year.

But entering the weekend, the Yankees were last in relief strikeout percentage, and even entering Monday they were 29th of 30 teams at just 18.2 percent. That was before Victor Gonzalez, who has whiffed just three of the 36 batters he has faced this year, allowed the two-run run homer to Zack Gelof on Monday that helped Oakland beat the Yankees, 2-0. The 8.3 percent was the second-lowest of any reliever who had thrown at least six innings this year.

The last time they had a lower percentage for the season was in the less-strikeout-oriented 2005, when it was 16.4. The last time they finished last in relief strikeout percentage was in 1998, when they registered a 15.4 mark, a low figure that did not stop the Yankees from having perhaps the greatest season ever.

Yankees catcher Jose Trevino said he was not concerned with the low whiff total because:

1. He felt more opponents were working (and beginning to succeed) in thwarting strikeouts. Indeed, strikeout percentage by MLB relievers is in the midst of going down for a third straight season, but just minimally from 24 percent in 2021 to 23.6 percent each of the past two seasons to 22.8 this year through this past weekend.

2. Trevino also cited the Yankees’ opponents, to date, being contact-oriented teams. The Yankees’ foes have included the Diamondbacks and Astros, who are the lowest strikeout-rate teams in the majors, the Blue Jays (5th), Guardians (7th), Marlins (12th), and Rays (20th).

3. He said he would happily exchange long strikeout at-bats for quicker ones with the ball in play. The Yankees relievers are better on that front, but only slightly, averaging 16.16 pitches per inning and 3.83 pitches per plate appearances compared to 16.58/3.93 last year.

4. He believes the Yankees’ relievers will get better because of their high-end stuff as the season progresses.

Pitching coach Matt Blake said he was fine with the loss of strikeouts as long as the team was excelling in two other areas — a low walk rate and a low exit velocity rate. He was disappointed that Yankees relievers were walking 9.9 percent of batters faced through the weekend — a number he said must decrease. Conversely, though, the Yankees relief corps was seventh-best in hard-hit rate against and fourth-best in exit velocity against.

“Obviously, you’d like to strike a lot of guys out,” Blake said. “If you look at the group, should we have struck out more guys than we have? Probably. But at the same time, it’s more about quality contact management and not walking guys. That’s probably been more of a concern for the group in general [walking too many]. It’s unlikely you will be good at all three (high strikeouts, low walks, mild hard-contact rates], so if you are going to be good at two of the three and you don’t have high strikeout rates, then you can’t give free passes.”

The overall numbers for the Yankees pen have been good this season. The group’s 2.96 ERA was sixth in MLB through the weekend and its .215 batting average against was seventh.

If there was an area of concern it is with men on, when a reliever often is trying not to allow the ball in play. The Yankees pen had allowed half its inherited runners this year to score, which was second-worst in the majors.

Suddenly, the Yankees bullpen is appearing thinner and less overpowering than any time in years.

Trading Michael King has been a factor, though he might have continued to start if he had remained a Yankee, but acquiring Juan Soto certainly was worth the deal. Also, Jonathan Loaisiga was lost for the season. Tommy Kahnle had a 29.1 strikeout percentage last season, the best of 10 Yankees relievers with at least 30 innings, but he has yet to pitch this season, though he is in line to return in the next few weeks.

Nick Burdi, who was leading current Yankees relievers with a 28.6 strikeout percentage, had to go on the IL because of a hip ailment. Ron Marinaccio, who is a strikeout reliever, has had the team lose faith in him after a down sophomore campaign in 2023.

And the two most trusted relievers in Aaron Boone’s pen have seen their strikeout rates drop significantly from last year: Ian Hamilton from 29.1 percent to 20.4 and Clay Holmes from 27.1 to 17 percent (both through the weekend).

How can the Yankees improve, considering the top 13 teams in relief strikeout percentage last year all had winning records?

Hamilton and Holmes can tick up. Kahnle can return in the short term, and perhaps Lou Trivino and Scott Effross can come back around midseason. Marinaccio can perhaps recapture his promising 2022 rookie performance.

Clayton Beeter, who has struck out 18 in his first 12 ⅓ Triple-A innings this year, remains a candidate to be transitioned to the pen at some point if the Yankees need him. Luis Gil, who is striking out 34.5 percent of hitters as a starter, also could come into play as a reliever, especially if Gerrit Cole can return from his elbow injury.

And then there’s the possibility that strikeout-oriented relievers such as the Cardinals’ Giovanny Gallegos (once traded by the Yankees to the Cardinals for Luke Voit), Washington’s Hunter Harvey and Miami’s Tanner Scott and others become available for trade as July nears.

Awards watch

We have the Comeback Player of the Year Award, where Starling Marte may be positioning himself to be a contender.

But Marte was a really good player for the Mets in 2022 before injury devastated his 2023. So I want to eliminate players like him for my totally made-up honor, which is the Comeback From the Apparent Career Abyss Award.

Or a reason to write about just how outrageous the re-rise of Marcell Ozuna has been with the Braves.

In the COVID-shortened 60-game 2020 season, Ozuna led the NL with 18 homers and 56 RBIs, to go along with a 1.067 OPS while on a one-year, $18 million pact with the Braves. Atlanta responded by signing him to a four-year, $64 million contract.

While on the IL with two fractured fingers in May 2021, Ozuna was arrested on charges of aggravated assault by strangulation and battery against his wife. He was placed on administrative leave on Sept. 9 while MLB investigated. The strangulation charge was dropped and the other charges were eliminated when Ozuna completed a diversion program. He was suspended 20 games, considered time served for the games missed in 2021. In Aug. 2022, he was arrested for driving under the influence.

From 2021 through April 2023, Ozuna was among the majors’ worst performers on the field with a slash line of .211/.271/.381 and minus-1.4 Wins Above Replacement (Fangraphs). In April alone last year, Ozuna’s slash line was .085/.194/.203 and his minus-0.7 WAR was second-worst in MLB.

For a time I actually wondered whether there was a race for who would be released first — Ozuna by the Braves or Aaron Hicks by the Yankees? Hicks, after brutal on-field seasons in 2021 and 2022, finished April 2023 with a .159/.229/.159 slash line and minus-0.5 WAR. On May 20, 2023, Hicks was designated for assignment. Hicks had roughly $30 million still owed through 2025.

Through April 2023, Ozuna had about $34 million still due from the Braves through this season.

But beginning on May 1 of last season, Ozuna has jolted back to life.

From then through the weekend, Ozuna’s slash line is .303/.371/.619, and his 47 homers were tied for second-most in the majors (with Kyle Schwarber) behind Matt Olson’s 49. The only players with more offensive WAR in that time are Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuña Jr., Freddie Freeman, Juan Soto and Olson.

Following a nice run with the division-winning Orioles after being released by the Yankees, Hicks enlisted with the Angels. Through the weekend, he looks like April 2023 Hicks again with a slash line of .143/.222/.204.

Last licks

My mom passed away on the final day of the 1998 regular season. I was in a press box in Atlanta about to chronicle what would be a fifth straight Mets loss to end that season and keep them out of the playoffs. No cellphones. No internet. I was alerted by a telephone call to the press box.

I missed the Yankees’ Division Series against the Rangers, eulogizing my mom at her funeral and then tending to my dad, a man of a certain age who had gone from his mom to the U.S. Army to my mom —  and now was on his own for the first time in his life.

My dad believed earnestly in work and kept telling me to go back to my job. I told him I was concerned and would not go without knowing he was OK. He kept reassuring me. But I formed a plan. The first two games of the ALCS were in The Bronx. I could go back to his apartment after the games. When the series shifted to Cleveland, I told my dad I would fly him out and he would stay with me and I would take him to the games.

Jon Heyman was then working at Newsday, and his wife, Corinne, also was on the trip and she was so kind, looking after my dad when I had to go early to the ballpark. She took him, for example, to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I had been friends with Michael Kay for a long time, even before I joined him on the Yankees beat in 1989. And Mike was kind enough to say my dad could sit in the radio booth. John Sterling blessed it as well. I cannot tell you how grateful I will forever be to them both. It was about the worst time of my dad’s life. And they made my greatest hopes come true —  for a little bit each day, they took his mind off of it.

They chatted with him and made him feel part of it all, and my dad was wide-eyed to be in the radio booth. He built a terrific rapport with John. They had similar tastes in music and teams — my dad also had grown up a Yankees fan. Those were the 114-win Yankees, and they went down two-games-to-one in that series with a ton of pressure on them.

But my dad loved Orlando Hernandez, who was starting Game 4. He told John before that game that the Yankees would win and never lose again for the rest of that postseason, and, indeed, the Yankees closed the playoffs 7-0 to win the title. My dad was giddy with it all. He would come with me annually to spring training —  Mets and Yankees —  until he became too ill in his later years. Whenever he would see John, my dad would remind him of his prediction and the two would fall in like old friends again.

After Sterling’s retirement press conference on Saturday, I went up to John and congratulated him on his career and thanked him once again for the kindness in 1998. And without missing a beat and without having talked to my father in many years, he blurted out, “I liked Murry so much,” remembering his first name as if they had just chatted the day before (and, yes, my dad spelled it M-u-r-r-y).

I have many good John Sterling stories. By coincidence, he began doing Yankees radio play-by-play in 1989, my first of seven years as the Yankees beat writer for this paper. He was incredibly kind over the years. John liked newspapers and newspapermen. He championed my book, “Birth of a Dynasty,” and, forgive a humblebrag, told me Saturday it was still the best sports book he had read (it is available on Amazon…sorry for the digression).

John was not everyone’s cup of tea as a play-by-play man —  but there was no cup of tea like him before and there will not be one like him again. He loved theater and movies and worked it all into the broadcast, a broadcast that was distinctly of the pre-Moneyball influence.

But of all those moments over 3 ½-plus decades, I will never stop appreciating just how kind John was at such a horrible moment for my dad and my family. So godspeed, John — and thanks again.

2024-04-23T10:28:30Z dg43tfdfdgfd