Yankees Flamethrower Shows Signs of Life

For Camilo Doval, the New York Yankees sent over Trystan Vrieling, Jesus Rodriguez, Parks Harber, and Carlos De La Rosa. He came with hype and had been on the New York Yankees' radar for some time, but he has underwhelmed thus far.

The expectation was that they would acquire a nasty pitcher to fortify the bullpen, who comes equipped with cutters that border on un-hittable due to their movement and velocity. Since coming to the Yankees, Doval has had a 5.79 ERA. In 9.1 IP, he has allowed six earned runs. The strikeout stuff is as advertised, but that 6.75 BB/9 has come back to bite him several times.

His appearance against the Washington Nationals may have been his best to date. Riley Adams was his first victim of the night with a dropped third strike on a slider. Dylan Crews flew out, and Brady House was disposed of quickly. He went down swinging on a slider, and it only took four pitches to send him back to the bench.

Doval's previous outing against Boston was shakier than his most recent one, but he did manage to walk away unscathed. He allowed two hits but struck out two. In both outings, he didn't issue a walk.

Doval's two straight scoreless innings are an improvement from where he has been. In four of his last five games before then, he gave up five earned runs in 3.2 innings pitched and somehow managed to face 23 different batters. He struck out six but walked five.

After his night against the Nationals, manager Aaron Boone was asked about Doval. He said he hopes we're seeing a more efficient version of him.

"I thought he filled up the strike zone really well. Cutter was electric. Mixed in the sinker, even, and some really good sliders," Boone said. "I feel like the last couple now have been really good—even the last one, where they got a couple of base runners off him. I actually thought he was in the strike zone. He was efficient. If that's the case, he's going to be successful."