New York Yankees need Zack Britton to fill the latest void

With Aroldis Chapman sidelined due to coronavirus, the New York Yankees will need Zack Britton to step in.

In a recent appearance on WFAN radio, New York Yankees reliever Zack Britton expressed his frustrations with Rob Manfred’s handling of the 2020 season, citing safety protocol as the top concern among players as they attempt to play during a global pandemic.

Despite his concern about how the league was going to go about testing and player safety, he praised the New York Yankees for their plan of action once players began arriving to camp. Unfortunately, a positive test was bound to happen and for the Yankees, it means a reliable force in the back end of their bullpen is now out for the “foreseeable future.”

Aroldis Chapman is reportedly experiencing mild symptoms after a positive COVID-19 test, but could be back on the mound in a few weeks, if all goes well. How long it takes his body to recover and get back in baseball shape is a complete unknown, meaning the New York Yankees will need someone to step up in his absence.

New York’s roster was hit with a rash of injuries which were sure to have a major impact on the early season performance of the Bronx Bombers, but just about everyone is healthy and ready to go with the 2020 season being pushed back to a late-July start.

Losing their closer, even for the first few weeks of the season, is again a blow to the early season success of a team expected to compete for a World Series title this season. But the next man up strategy of the Yankees when dealing with major injuries has worked well recently.

Expect that to continue as Zack Britton replaces Aroldis Chapman to close out games.

Now 32, the bright lights of New York haven’t phased Britton since joining the Yankees in 2018 trade with the Baltimore Orioles. Just last season, the ground ball specialist went 3-1 with a 1.91 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and was worth 0.9 fWAR across 66 appearances.

It was his best season since his historic 2016 season with the Orioles where he recorded 45 saves and posted a 0.54 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, and an 80% groundball rate.

While the 2020 version of Zack Britton may not be as dominant as the 2016 version, he was still effective in high-leverage situations and in a small sample of ninth-inning outings last season.

He surrendered just one earned run when pitching in the ninth and was dominant down the stretch, giving up just three earned runs and allowing a .136 average against in 24.1 post-All-Star break innings.

In a 60-game season when your schedule consists of 40 games against AL East foes and 20 games against a very good NL East lineup of teams, every win matters in 2020 for the New York Yankees. Not having Chapman to start the season isn’t ideal for an already shaky bullpen, but they will be able to count on Zack Britton to hold down the ninth inning for the time being.

Sure, the high walk rate is a bit of a concern, but Britton hasn’t recorded a groundball rate lower than 72.6% since 2013 (77.2% last season). As long as the defense behind him is reliable, Britton will set them up to close out the inning.

The New York Yankees have already began preparing, experimenting with a five-man infield and two-man outfield behind Britton during a recent intrasquad scrimmage.