In the top of the 10th inning of Wednesday’s thrilling battle of AL East rivals in the Bronx, Clay Holmes allowed two hits without recording a strikeout, Jose Trevino sailed a ball into left field on yet another stolen base attempt, and the Yankees lost 7-6 to fall to 1-5 on the season in extra-inning games.
The costly top of the 10 th highlighted a glaring issue in the Yankee roster that will continue to spell trouble in extra innings, and in late-and-close games come October if the proper changes aren’t made.
Not only do the Yanks have just one win in six tries in extras so far this season, they are 7-14 in such situations since the start of last season, good for the third-worst winning percentage in all of baseball ( per Stathead’s Katie Sharp ). The Yankees are consistently failing to keep the Manfred Man at second base from scoring, and it is burning them time and time again for over a year now. Last year, it could have been chalked up to the mediocre mush that was the 2023 Yankees. But this year, why does a team with the most wins in baseball keep flopping once the game moves past the ninth inning?
The problem lies on the mound and behind the plate.
First, the mound, where the Yankee bullpen has the sixth-best ERA in all of baseball, but when you look closer, their makeup is not conducive to keeping teams off the scoreboard in extra innings. It has become widely known that the Yankee relievers struggle to get strikeouts, and the numbers back that up, and the bullpen is 19 th in the league in strikeouts per nine innings, and 23 rd in baseball in total strikeouts. The bullpen pitches to contact far too often, making it easier for opposing teams to go station to station and move runners over, a nightmare formula in extra innings when a runner starts on second base.
Holmes is a perfect example. Sure, he is still one of the better closers in the game, but strikeouts are not his strength. A bloop single like the one Cedric Mullins flared into center field in the 10 th inning on Wednesday night is all it takes to decide a game. And Holmes is far from the only culprit, as the Yankees desperately need relievers that can rack up the strikeouts, limit traffic on the bases, and get shutdown innings to give the offense a chance to walk it off.
While strikeouts have been an issue, equally concerning are the walks. The Yankee bullpen is 23 rd in the league in walks per nine this season, giving teams further chances to seek contact, move runners over, and drive them in. The bullpen is making it far too easy for opposing teams to manufacture runs, a killer in late-and-close games.
Then we get to behind the plate, where Jose Trevino has been simply awful at preventing stolen bases. It has been an issue all year, but has only become glaring since the Red Sox ran wild with a franchise record nine stolen bases on Sunday night in Boston, before the O’s swiped four more bags on Wednesday, including Mullins, who stole third and scored the eventual game-winning run after Trevino sailed the throw to third into left field. The problem isn’t going away, as Trevino is in just the second percentile of the league in pop time this season and 13th percentile in caught stealing above average, per Statcast. Trevino has allowed 32 stolen bases this season and caught just 10, as he is well on his way to allowing the most thefts of his career (his career worst is 40 in 2021 with the Rangers in 88 games).
To be fair to Trevino, he is having a fine offensive season, especially from the catcher position, and is also one of the best framers in the league, so he does bring plenty of value in other areas. But they are currently being drowned out by a weak arm that is now being exploited more than ever.
So, put it all together, and you have a nightmare formula for extra innings. A runner starts on second base against a pitching staff that walks too many batters and pitches to contact, while the catcher behind the dish is among the worst in the league at throwing out runners. That is not a recipe for success when the game is at its most tense, and won’t be one that will inspire confidence come playoff time, when there will be more tight games down the stretch. Fortunately, Brian Cashman has over five weeks to go to work and add strikeout arms out of the bullpen, and he almost certainly will.
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