Yankees Make MASSIVE Bullpen Change | What’s Next?

Yankees Make MASSIVE Bullpen Change | What’s Next?

The New York Yankees cleared out a lot of their bullpen with their non-tenders. Ian Hamilton’s gone. Scott Efrost is gone. Jake Cousins is guard. Mike Letter Jr. is gone. But what does that mean for the Yankee bullpen and how can they re kind of load this bullpen group that has been seriously depleted by their non-tenders? I’m Ryan Garcia. This is Fireside Yankees. Today we’re going to discuss the Yankees decisions to let these guys go and some replacement options that could exist on the market to either a bolster their back end of the bullpen. Whether that’s the seventh, eighth, ninth inning guys or uh also improve their depth, get guys who are projecting to be less impactful, not immediate high leverage guys, but could become that throughout the season. Again, we’re going to be talking about all that and more right here on Fireside Yankees, where it’s your one-stop shop for Yankees content. This is a bullpen makeover for the Yankees, and they’re going to need to make a lot of additions. And if you like this kind of content, make sure you like and subscribe. Turn on that notification bell and check out our social media pages on Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, Facebook, and of course this YouTube page. Same handle at Fireside Yankees. And let’s just jump right into this and let’s talk about their non-tenders first. Jake Cousins, Tommy John surgery missed the entire 2025 season. Is not someone I expect to see do very much in 2026. He’s someone that I think the Yankees, you know, it was a kind of a tossup. I I thought there was a chance they bring him back just because of the upside there. and maybe they do still bring him back, but on a minor league deal. Um, and he’s the guy I have the least to say about. He was really good with the Yankees in that one year he was here. Um, I would expect him to have a robust market of teams willing to take the flyer on him and he’s deserving of teams taking that flyer on him. He’s a talented pitcher. Um, really good slider, good sinker, and I wish him all the best. He’s just so injuryprone that it’s really hard to invest guaranteed MLB money into a player who is never really healthy. And in the case of Jake Cousins, that has unfortunately been uh what has happened to him. Uh despite all the talent he has, the great slider, the really good sinker, he is very, very disgusting in terms of stuff. Just not very healthy. For Ian Hamilton, just a bad year. It’s been a really, really rough couple years for Ian Hamilton. Really good in 2023. Awesome. 2.64 ERA. Strikeout rate looks great. Walk rate still high, but you know, he’s a really good reliever that year. In the year following, it’s a step back. Uh strikeout rate decreases. walk rate is a little bit better, but the strikeout to walk rate overall is a decrease from his 2023 season. Misses a ton of bats, still doesn’t keep the ball on the ground as much, isn’t as good of a run preventer, but the underlying metrics indicate, hey, he’s still good. He made the postseason roster and unfortunately got hurt during the postseason. So, um, Hamilton someone who had a ton of talent going into 2025. I mean, you you just felt like, hey, the way he finished his 24 year with all the swings and misses, the way he he looked in 23, like, this is should be a guy who still impacts your roster in 25. That was not the case. 40 innings pitched, 36 games. Strikeout rate decreases, uh, you know, stays below what it was in 23, but the walk rate 13.3%. So, similar strikeout rate to last year, uh, but this past year, walk rate nearly doubles. It’s just a rough year for Hamilton. Home run rate increases, barrel rate against increases, ground ball rate decreased for a second straight year, swinging strike rate decreased. Like Ian Hamilton is just significantly worse than where he was in years past. Loses a mile per hour on his fast ball. Location plus drops from 95 the year prior to 89 this year. So command was awful. Stuff was below average for the first time since joining the organization. And the walk rate was unbearable. The strikeouts to walk rate below average for the first time in his Yankee career. uh barrel rate worse than average for the first time in his Yankee career. This was a bad bad bad Ian Hamilton year. And given that he is entering his age 30 to 31 season, not really the kind of guy you’re betting on to have an increase in production in 2026. Projections have him being better than he was in 2025, but um not by a mark that is worth guaranteeing him multi-million dollar salary. And maybe the Yankees again bring him back on a minor league deal, but his minor league numbers when he was demoted were terrible. He saw a strikeout rate at just 22.7% 6 erra 13.6% walk rate. Home run per nine rate of 0.50 in indicating there was some poor luck in there. He probably wasn’t a six RA level bad reliever but he was still not a good reliever. He was a league averageish reliever on a underlying metrics basis. And this is a guy who was a major leager going down. Not a prospect. Not looking great for Ian Hamilton. Just did not look good at all. Uh and that’s why the Yankees aren’t bringing him back. it it makes sense and it’s why they haven’t tendered him a contract. Again, maybe they give him a minor league deal, but the minor league production was terrible. Um, and that does not help. That does not bode well for his market. Again, I do think he’s going to get picked up. He’s not going to go he’s he’s going to be a major league baseball or minor league baseball. He is still a guy you should be willing to sign if you’re a team and especially if you’re a team like the White Socks, a team like uh the Rockies, not a good baseball team and you just need arms. Uh Ian Hamilton makes a lot of sense, but um it was not it was a really bad it was a very bad 2025 season for Hamilton. That’s why they didn’t tender him a contract. Scott Efrost, oh man, this was another really really just bad year. Injuries, not good when healthy. 11 appearances, 8.44 RA strikeout rate 11.8%. That is a that is the third fourth or yeah third straight year where it’s decreased uh decreased in 20 from 21 to 22 decreased from 22 to 24 decreased from 24 to 25. didn’t pitch in 23, hurt the entire year. 32 years old, uh velocity is way down. Uh and he doesn’t throw hard, but he sat 91 in 22 and he’s sitting 89 miles per hour in 2025. So, it’s a 2 m per hour decrease. Uh ground ball rate not bad. It’s it was solid this year. It’s 50%, but you still doesn’t like he he gets hit decently hard. He doesn’t give up uh tons of loud contact, but it’s a lot of contact. So, uh when you give up a lot of contact, it there’s bound to be loud contact in there. swinging strike rate is terrible. He doesn’t miss any bats anymore. He walks people, which is not great. Or at least in 24 he walked people. And in 2025, the walk rate isn’t like outlier elite. It’s it’s just solid. Um and at the minor league level, he was not a good AAA pitcher. He did not strike out anybody at AAA. Uh in in Triple A, 16.5% striker rate, 7.2% walk rate. Uh the erra over six, it was 6.37. Good fit. 3.50. He never allowed home runs essentially. But the other underlying metrics were bad. Just not good. Just not a good reliever. Similar to Ian Hamilton where it’s like if those were your major league underlying numbers, I think you get tendered to contract. But those are your minor league underlying numbers. You are a big leager going down to the minor leagues and you have not been effective. Compare that to 2024 where at AAA he was really good. 2.78 RA, 22% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate, 60% crown ball rate. He’s gotten worse to AAA level. There’s a regression year toear uh in his minor league production. stuff plus way just like not where it was pre-injjury. 114 to 104 location plus 109 to 95. He’s just not effective anymore. He’s not the pitcher he once was and that’s why the Yankees are letting him go. Uh and it makes sense. Bust of a trade for the Yankees. Just a really really really bad trade. Hayden Weski’s a a major leager. I know he’s been hurt, but like way more valuable than than Ephro has ever been with the Yankees. So not a good deal. Injuries just ate into him. Wasn’t really bad scouting, just really bad luck. If he were not hurt all the time, this would have been a really good deal probably. Uh I liked what he brought to the table. High striketh throwing guy. Uh really funky release point. Just a real shame. A real shame of a deal because I think if not for injuries, he would have been a lot better for Mark Lighter Jr. injuries aid into his 2025 season. I was very high on him going into the year. I thought the strikeout rate in 24. Um the home run rate was inflated, but you know, he was he projected to be pretty good. I mean, you strike out 33.6% of batters faced. You have a swinging strike rate of over 16%. you’re someone I think is going to be very good in the following year. And this year it it looked good to start to to start the year. There were moments where it’s like, “All right, Mark Lighter Jr., this is a guy. This is a dude.” Um, and then you look at, you know, that Reds series, he just I mean that that Red series where he was kind of done in. Uh, entering that Red series, he held a 3.6 RA, a 2.64 FIP, a 0.90 uh home run per nine rate, a really good strikeout rate. Uh, just having a good year. Like this was a guy who you could trust in in big situations. the first Red’s game, uh, he allows an unearned run, but, you know, two strikeouts, he had 3.48 on the end of the year after this, and it was all downhill after this. So, let’s compare the underlying data, not the ERA, because the ERA was bad, but I want to highlight why the Yankees cut him because clearly they didn’t cut him because of a bad ERA, uh, because they would have done that last year. 32% strikeout rate uh, going into the Red Series, uh, or at least in his first game, after the first game of the Red Series, 32.1% strikeout rate, ton of swing and miss. That’s the exact kind of guy you need in your bullpen. Then you look after that point. This is the the series where he had that knee issue that put him on the IIL. He struck out 12.2% of batters faced after the fact. 9.8% walk rate. He was awful after this. He stopped throwing his splitter that much. He He couldn’t get swings and misses. And he’s 34 years old. He’s going to be 35 next year. If that injury really took that big of a toll on his ability to effectively pitch, not good. And it’s not going to get better in at age 35. It’s not like your knee is going to heal better at age 35 than you were at 34. So, I was high on him going into the year. It looked like it was aging really well. It looked like, hey, this was a good take. I I had him as a I said he was going to be a top 25 reliever in wins above replacement. Looked good at one point and then just crashed and burned. And that is the Mark Lighter Jr. season. It was great to start. It was a guy who missed a ton of bats. It was a guy who uh fit the profile of a swing and miss guy. Good splitter. Fastball VA was up from 91.9 to 93.4 and then just completely crashed and burned after that knee issue and for the Yankees not really wise to project an increase in production following that. That’s just my opinion on that matter. So Mark Lighter Jr. another guy who like projects well for 2026 3.84 RA just like projects to be solid reliever but I would bet against that. I would take the I would take the over on his RA at 3.8. So makes sense there. Now, as the Yankees try and build their bullpen after that, let’s talk about a couple of guys who are cheap on the market who I think could be good fits. Bringing back Luke Weaver, I think I’m four. A lot of swings and misses last year. I think it was like a 90th percentile whiff rate and like an 85th percentile chase rate. That’s that’s good. Those are marks that I expect to translate into good production in 2026. Struck out a good amount of his batter face. Doesn’t walk a ton of dudes. Weaver coming back is a good cheap alternative to uh some of the topper top end market guys. I know Devin Williams coming back is is on the table, but I don’t think the Yankees are going to be the top biders for him. That’s just my opinion on it. But Weaver strikes me as like really good flyer to take. He’s a guy you’ve had before. You didn’t he didn’t have a great year this year, but he wasn’t awful until the postseason. Guy you project to be a good reliever in 26. And I think that’s why you bring him back for the Yankees. He misses bats. He throws decently hard. He sits like 95 on his fast ball. That’s a guy I would bring back. If he’s cheap, why not? Um, some of the other like cheaper options on the market, I like Hunter Harvey as a one-year bo. Uh, good swing and miss numbers, good fast ball, good splitter, good slider. If you want to look at like the middle of the reliever market, Kyle Finnegan started drawing his splitter a ton with the Tigers. He’s older. He’s like 36, so that gives me a little bit of concern. But if you want to sign him to a one-year deal, uh, I’d be all in for that. the higher end of that market. Brad Keller, uh, is someone who struck out about 27% of batters face, kept the ball on the ground a lot, sits at like 97 miles per hour, good fast ball, uh, really deep repertoire, throws a bunch of pitches. Uh, so that’s something that appeals to me as well. But the trade market is kind of where I’ve got the most intrigue. The Rockies having a new GM makes me wonder if they’re going to trade some of their guys. And I would love Victor Vodnik, who has a really hard fast, 99 miles per hour, should be better away from Field. be an above average fast ball if he gets the pitch away from it. Change up is really nasty. Keeps the ball on the ground a lot. Should walk fewer batters away from Kors. Uh I think he’s someone that if you put him in the Yankee organization would be a relief star and he’s pre-arbitration. Maybe you have to trade a little more to get him, but that’s fine. He’s he’s really good. I I like him a lot. Really good stuff. Um Garrett Cleger is like a stamped and proven like elite level left-handed reliever this past year. Tons of swing and misses. I think it’s like a 34% strikeout rate. Throws incredibly hard. Uh Rays could look to move on from him. He’s someone who just I mean he pops on the on on a lot of stuff models. Pops in a lot of those swing and miss categories. He’s the kind of guy you bring into your bullpen and you expect him to be your eighth or seventh inning guy almost immediately. So I do think there’s enough trade targets on the market. You can bring back Wii Bar on like a salary dump at $4 million. She still throws as hard as he did with the Yankees. It’s about 95 mile per hour sinkers. Uh, and if you look at the erra and the results and all that stuff, it looks about as good as it did when he left the Yankees. If you look at like his best year at the Yankees, which I consider to be 2022, erra minus of 70, fit minus of 70, uh, strikeout to walk rate of a 13.3%, ground ball rate of, uh, 53%. This past year, uh, RA minus 78, fit minus 89, strikeout to walk rate 10.3%, ground ball rate 59.7%. So, not as many uh strikeouts. Uh more walks definitely than his best year with the Yankees. Uh but the ground ball rate way higher. The highest ground ball rate of his career. Uh the underlying metrics are relatively similar like XFIP and Sierra are pretty close here. Uh FIP and ERA pretty there’s a there’s a big FIP gap. Uh that’s just mainly the uh increase in walks and the home run rate being 0.63 per nine. But I I do think Wani Peralta is a guy that on a salary dump could be like a sixth inning. Like could be your best left-handed reliever for a $4 million contract. Definitely someone I’d be interested in having back in this bullpen. Point is, the reliever market is pretty pretty like there’s there’s a lot of relievers out there, I guess, is the best way to put it. There’s a good chunk of relief pitching out there. The Yankees shouldn’t fall short of of getting relievers. Uh there are tons of guys I haven’t even discussed that I’m sure could become available. Jojo Romero. Uh I’ve talked about, you know, I’ve thought about like Riley O’Brien on the Cardinals, another guy who he’s got like five years of control, but he’s 30, throws very hard, good ground ball rate, tons of injuries, which is a risk, but um there are a lot of arms that exist in the market that the Yankees should be willing to go after. Um and whether that’s an expensive guy, whether that’s a cheap guy in the trade market, whether that’s a cheap guy in free agency, they should be able to build out their bullpen depth. I like Jake Bird for next year. I would project them to be an impact reliever. Brent Hedrick, I think, will be an impact reliever. I think they’re they’re both upgrades over uh the guys you just non tendered. Um and the the the tons of depth in the the reliever market should give the Yankees the willingness to spend or spend capital whether that’s prospect capital or financial resources on relievers and upgrade from that non-tender group of guys who just you just wouldn’t project good outcomes for in 2026. Only guy I’d project a good outcome for is Jake Cousins and that’s if he pitches. And if he pitches is a big if. Like Jake Cousins is always hurt. He is that’s that’s just kind of what he does and that’s unfortunate but um it’s what he does. We saw that there was some elbow trouble at the end of 24 and it you know preceded elbow trouble in 2025. He is projected to throw one inning on steamer. So uh he might not even pitch this year. Like that’s he I mean it’s not good. It’s not good for him. I think he had Tommy John in about like June or July. Uh yeah I think it was in June and July cuz he pitched a little bit at the minor league level uh this past year. Wasn’t very good. Uh but he did pitch there. Uh, so I I do think that Cousins could end up being out for the entire year. So that’s I mean that’s that’s kind of the the the crux of it. The Yankees a lot of guys were either hurt in Cousins or just not good in the other guys and also hurt like Mark Leer Jr. We’ll see what the Yankees end up doing in the bullpen. But let me know what you guys think in the comments section below. Did you think these non-tenders were good? I think that they had to non-tender these guys. I’m glad they did. Uh not because I think they’re not major leaguers, but because I just think they can do better and those guys are going to go to other teams and that’ll happen. I know that Mark Ler Jr. receive some trade interest from other teams. Um, but with that being said, again, like, comment, subscribe, let me know what you guys think in the comment section below. We’ll see you guys in the next one. Have a great rest of your day and peace out, everybody. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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