Yankees: Chad Green Showing Signs of Life as an Opener
By Manny Gómez
Close to a week after being optioned to the Yankees AAA affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, Chad Green is showing signs of life. This time as an Opener.
When the New York Yankees optioned Chad Green to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on April 24th, it was the first time the reliever had been sent down to the minor leagues in close to two years.
Prior to being optioned to the minors, Green had become the antithesis of what made him such a great reliever in the first place. No longer was he the automatic out machine the Yanks had relied on so much since 2017. Instead, Green had become the worst relief pitcher in baseball.
On Monday, however, in a minor league game against the Rochester Red Wings, the RailRiders opted to use Green as an Opener. For those of you not familiar with this strategy, an Opener is a reliever that opens the game for an inning or two before handing the ball over to what would have been the starter.
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Anyway, as an Opener, Chad Green seemed to have found new life. At least, for one day… in Scranton… in the minor leagues.
Pitching 2-innings, Green allowed 0 runs, struck out 5 batters, and walked only 1, showing flashes of the old Chad Green. The one that ranked 5th in fWAR among all RPs in baseball since 2017.
The New York Yankees have been raddled with injuries this season. Fortunately, aside from Luis Severino and Dellin Betances, the injury bug hasn’t really caught up to the team’s pitching.
There is, however, one other problem with the team’s starting rotation, and that is that it lacks stamina. Of the current starters the Yanks roll out every fifth day, only CC Sabathia has ever exceeded the 200 IP threshold. The last time he did it was in 2013.
Using Chad Green as an opener could potentially remedy the stamina problem for the Yanks, limiting a starters innings to 5-6 IP in a start.
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First, however, we have to see Green get a few more chances in the minors.