Yankees Believe Former Bullpen Star Has Plenty Left in Tank to Help Staff

The New York Yankees are off to a strong start to this campaign with the offense performing at an extremely high level. However, they did recently add someone to help out in the bullpen. 

With the Yankees off to a historic start to the campaign on offense, the team has eased some of the concerns coming into the year. 

New York has been able to hit the most home runs in MLB history through the first four games of the season. 

However, despite the offensive success, the team did recently make a move to improve a bullpen that is dealing with quite a number of injuries early on. 

Recently, they signed right-hander Adam Ottavino to help bolster the unit. 

The 39-year-old was at spring training with the Boston Red Sox this year, but the results weren’t great. He allowed six runs in five innings of work, before opting out of his contract. 

As a free agent, he went to put in some work before the season started, and that work has seemingly paid off and caught the attention of New York. 

Yankees manager Aaron Boone recently spoke about the decision to reunite with Ottavino to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, highlighting the success that he has had with the team in the past. 

“He’s still been very effective, really, throughout his entire career. When we first got him, we brought him in to be that kind of righty killer, high-leverage setup [reliever]. He delivered on that. And obviously, he’s very familiar with what it takes to play here," Boone said.

This isn’t the first time that Ottavino will be a member of New York, with the right-hander pitching for the franchise in 2019 and the Covid-shortened 2020 season. 

Excluding the strange 2020 campaign, he performed well in 2019, totaling a 1.90 ERA. 

Pitching under the bright lights in New York isn’t easy, but Ottavino hasn’t shied away from pitching in big markets. Since 2020, he has been on both the Red Sox and the New York Mets. 

With the Mets last year, he totaled a 4.34 ERA in 60 games to go along with a 2-2 record. 

While the 39-year-old isn’t going to be a high-leverage pitcher for the Yankees more than likely this year, he provides valuable experience in a bullpen that needs some help with a plethora of injuries. 

Despite just being signed, he made his season debut already for the team, pitching 0.2 innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks. 

Even though he didn’t have a great spring training, the Yankees clearly see some potential in the veteran to be able to help the bullpen while key members of the unit are out.