New York Yankees bullpen becoming bigger focus at trade deadline

The New York Yankees did not appear to have many needs at the trade deadline. While they theoretically could use a center fielder, Aaron Judge has performed well defensively in the role. Their shopping list was likely to be an outfielder and possibly a bullpen arm since one can never have enough pitching depth.

That was before Friday. Michael King, one of the Yankees best relievers, fractured his elbow while throwing a pitch, leaving a major hole in their bullpen. On Saturday, Lindsey Adler from The Athletic reported that King is out for the year. Brian Hoch further reported that Clarke Schmidt and Shane Greene had joined the Yankees in Baltimore.

New York Yankees have sudden need for bullpen help

Greene has been a solid major league arm when healthy, and Schmidt has shown flashes of being a valuable option. However, neither pitcher would be a given. Meanwhile, Jonathan Loaisiga and Aroldis Chapman have been major disappointments, with both pitchers having points in time when they are unusable.

King’s absence for the rest of the year further exposes those issues. The Yankees’ search for bullpen help now has to extend to the later innings as King had been a valuable setup man. That is going to be far more difficult to replace than adding a depth piece for the middle innings.

Every contending team looks for bullpen depth at the trade deadline. The Yankees were not going to be any different, especially given the struggles of some of the pitchers they had been counting on at the start of the season. The difference is that they may now be shopping at a higher end of the market than they had originally expected.

The New York Yankees were already looking for depth options in the bullpen. Michael King’s injury has made the bullpen more of a focus than it had been.