Pitcher Profiles: New York Yankees organization April 2023

Instead of focusing on who is the best pitcher (Gerrit Cole) or one of the worst pitchers (Clarke Schmidt) in the New York Yankees organization at the Major League and Triple-A levels right now, I am going to focus on which pitchers in the New York Yankees organization could be brought up or could be sent down!

The pitchers I am focusing on today (Tuesday) probably are staying put where they are right now! (Forget I just said that! Holy smokes!) I just looked at the transactions for the New York Yankees today (Tuesday) at 7:35 p.m. Eastern Time shortly after the New York Yankees-Minnesota Twins game started and Greg Weissert got “optioned” to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (SWB) while the Yankees “selected the contract” of Nick Ramirez from SWB! (So everything I wrote in the following pitcher profiles in this story about Weissert and Ramirez I wrote before I learned this news!)

Before I begin, all statistics in this story are after all games on Sunday, April 24th, 2023, and before all games on Monday, April 25th, 2023, (unless otherwise noted).

Also, if you want to learn more about my own created statistics such as actual wins, actual losses, True ERA and True Run Average (which I clearly imply often in this story) you can read about right here. I just look at these won-lost records of pitchers in the first month or two of the regular season who are 0-0 or 0-1 or 1-0 and it doesn’t tell me a whole lot about them. So I am hoping to offer new insights into evaluating won-lost records and performance regardless of the win or loss result for any game in the world of baseball analysis.

If you have further questions, I guess you can ask me on Twitter or other social media.

So without further delay, I am going to talk about six pitchers in the Yankees organization and what we could expect from them this season.

Greg Weissert

2023 Regular Season (all levels): 0-0, 1.17 ERA, .593 actual wins & .000 actual losses (1.000 win pct.)

2023 Regular Season with New York Yankees (NYY): 0-0, 0.00 ERA, .111 actual wins & .000 actual losses (1.000 win pct.) (before Monday’s game); 0-0, 2.08 ERA (after Monday’s game)

2023 Regular Season with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (SWB): 0-0, 1.69 ERA, .481 actual wins & .000 actual losses (1.000 win pct.)

Weissert at this point is not going to be sent down to Triple-A anytime soon. He has simply been outstanding at both the Major League and Triple-A levels so far.

At this point, let’s be honest, he’s only in the Majors because of other Yankees’ pitchers injuries (and struggles).

Maybe he will have to get sent down to Triple-A once or twice or three times for a tune up throughout the regular season, but other than that he should be in the Bronx (or wherever the Yankees are playing when they are on the road).

He was optioned to Scranton on March 29th, so he isn’t exactly established as part of the Yankees for the long-term future right now (or part of their postseason plans right now) and I think it is too early to say whether he will be in the Bronx all regular season long.

The now 28-year-old made his Big League debut on August 25th, 2022.

He first played in the Minors in 2016, he didn’t play in the Minors in 2020, so he’s old (or young) enough that the Yankees will be taking a serious look at him all season long…you can count on it!

He’s tied for eighth in actual wins at Scranton in the regular season. His winning percentage at both Scranton and New York (both 1.000) are better than his performance regardless of the win or loss result for any game in the regular season at Scranton and at New York combined (.855).

Aaron McGarity

2023 Regular Season with SWB: 2-0, 1.74 ERA, .481 actual wins & .179 actual losses (.728 win pct.)

McGarity hasn’t made his Big-League debut yet. He’s been in the Minors since 2017 and he didn’t play in the Minors in 2020 and 2021.

He’s posted an ERA of 2.50 or better every season in the Minors. His ERA right now in his Minors career is 1.89 in just 75 games!

He’s played in just fourteen (14) or fewer games every season except once in the Minors (when he pitched in 35 games in 2019).

Obviously, he needs to stay healthy and get more seasoning in the Minors before he’s called up to the Big Leagues!

If McGarity keeps pitching well, the Yankees will have no choice but to eventually bring him up!

He was assigned to Scranton on April 4th. He could be a September callup! The Yankees have to make sure he is really ready before he gets called up (and if they are smart they won’t rush him)!

Realistically speaking, McGarity probably isn’t getting called up to the Majors this year, especially if he has another long-term injury again.

McGarity could make his MLB debut this year, but he’s going to have to prove he can stay healthy and play in a lot of games at Triple-A this year before he is given such a great opportunity especially with the fact he’s played in so few games at the Minor League level up to this point!

Clearly, the Yankees and McGarity are the only ones who really know how close he is to the Big Leagues.

He’s tied for eighth in actual wins at Scranton in the regular season. His performance regardless of the win or loss result for any game in the regular season (.779) is better than his winning percentage (.728).

Deivi Garcia

2023 Regular Season with SWB: 1-0, 1.93 ERA, .429 actual wins and .343 actual losses (.556 win pct.)

The Yankees don’t seem like they want to rush him to the Big Leagues again. Being a starter was ultimately a disaster for him at the Major League level.

Garcia looks like he is transitioning from a starter to a reliever and it looks like it is working out very well for him so far.

It seems like to me he could be or will be part of the Yankees’ postseason plans when September and October roll around. Obviously, he isn’t getting called up unless other players get injured.

He was optioned to Triple-A on March 14th and he already made his Big-League debut at the age of 21 on August 30th, 2020.

His performance regardless of the win or loss result for any game in the regular season (.755) is better than his winning percentage (.556).

Garcia also has the tenth-most actual losses in the Yankees organization for Triple-A and MLB combined for the entire season (which includes Spring Training)!

Nick Ramirez

2023 Regular Season with SWB: 0-0 1.74 ERA, .698 actual wins and .000 actual losses (1.000 win pct.)

Ramirez could be a big piece to the puzzle (in the regular season or the postseason) later in the year, especially if other pitchers are hurt and/or cannot play.

He made his Big-League debut in 2019 and he has already pitched 110 2/3 innings in 64 games with Detroit and San Diego at the MLB level. His last MLB appearance was in 2021. So he knows what it takes to get there.

Ramirez is going to be known by the whole world very soon for a while (if not a few years), I can “feel” it. (I must admit, I edited the previous sentence after I heard the news he was getting called up today to make his regular season debut as a member of the New York Yankees. I originally had written: “He’s going to be around for a while” and have been debating all day whether to keep it or take it out of this story.)

If everyone in the Yankees’ relief corps is healthy, Ramirez could be a trade piece to a National League team if other Yankees pitchers are simply better than him.

The 33-year old likely doesn’t have many years left in baseball (if he decides to retire at the age of 37 or something like that) and he may or may not make the Yankees’ postseason roster.

Ramirez could be called up at any time.

Keep your eye on this guy all season long more than anybody else in the Yankees organization at the MLB and Triple-A levels! I think he’s going to be a difference maker!

He’s fifth in actual wins at Scranton in the regular season. His winning percentage (1.000) is better than his performance regardless of the win or loss result for any game in the regular season (.750).

Michael King

2023 Regular Season with NYY: 0-1, 2.03 ERA, .974 actual wins & .798 actual losses (.550 win pct.)

The last time he spent a significant amount of time in the Minor Leagues was 2019. (He was also in the Minors in 2021). His ERA has gotten better every regular season of his Big-League career after the 2020 season.

King is pitching better than Domingo German in the regular season.

King’s winning percentage (.550) in the regular season is better than his performance regardless of the win or loss result for any game (.506).

He’s the ninth best pitcher on the Yankees in the regular season.

King’s 3.38 True ERA is also better than Domingo German, but King should actually be getting blamed a lot more for allowing opposing baserunners to eventually score!

King is ranked fourth on the Yankees in actual wins and third in actual losses (only behind Domingo German and Clarke Schmidt).

King is staying in the Big Leagues for now as he is too valuable and has pitched at least 1 1/3 innings in each of his seven regular season appearances so far.

However, he has allowed baserunners to score in five out of seven games during the regular season (even though runs and earned runs tries to make him look better and says that he has only given up a run or runs in two games during the regular season).

King also has the eighth-most actual wins in the Yankees organization for Triple-A and MLB combined for the entire season (which includes Spring Training)!

Domingo German

2023 Regular Season with NYY: 1-2, 4.50 ERA, .704 actual wins & 2.021 actual losses (.258 win pct.)

He hasn’t really had significant time in the Minor Leagues since 2017. (He was in the Minors in 2018, 2019, 2021 & 2022 all briefly). His ERA in the Big Leagues has been 3.14 or worse every season.

German is certainly pitching better in the regular season regardless of the win or loss result for any game (.473) than his winning percentage (.258) suggests.

He is the 11th best pitcher on the Yankees in the regular season.

So that’s a good thing for “Sunday” (German’s nickname) right now.

German’s True ERA is 3.71 (which means he shouldn’t be getting blamed as much for runs scoring after he leaves the game).

And his Run Average (like Earned Run Average except for Runs) is 4.95 compared to his True Run Average of 4.16.

He’s ranked seventh in actual wins and second in actual losses on the New York Yankees in the regular season only behind Clarke Schmidt.

Now would simply be too early in the regular season to send German to Triple-A or Double-A when he’s given the Yankees at least six innings in his last two starts.

German also has the sixth-most actual wins in the Yankees organization for Triple-A and MLB combined for the entire season (which includes Spring Training)!

…

I think I might write another story like this again very soon for another batch of different pitchers in the Yankees’ organization (maybe after the Yankees-Twins series or maybe after the New York Yankees at Texas Rangers series this upcoming weekend).

I might talk about Clarke Schmidt for that story.

But Clarke Schmidt will determine in the near future whether I need to talk about him a lot more or not. (By the way, I wrote an extremely detailed story about Clarke Schmidt for my previous story on the Call To The Pen website).

Schmidt is fourth in actual wins on the Yankees so far during the regular season (before Monday’s games)! The Yankees need him to just eat up innings right now! So if you are a die-hard Yankees fan, please be nice to Mr. Schmidt and don’t give him such a hard time!

The Yankees lost again to the Twins 6-2 on Tuesday night.

This is also a big week at the Triple-A level for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders as they play at the Worcester Red Sox from Tuesday (today) through Sunday!

As this story is about to be published Scranton defeated Worcester 8-6 on Tuesday night.