Heading into the 2026 season, the New York Yankees have some kinks to work out and some roles to be filled by those who are able to step up to the plate (for lack of a better phrase) and take advantage. The pitching staff is dealing with injuries—primarily to the starters—and the bullpen lost a couple of weapons who, despite both having down years in their careers, did eat up innings for them last season.

There are plenty of arguments to go around about which pitchers in the bullpen should take which spots. The Yankees brought back some familiar faces and acquired hurlers on multi-year contracts at last year’s trade deadline to help themselves out, but there are a few new faces in the clubhouse as well, including Angel Chivilli, who was acquired on January 28th from the Colorado Rockies.

2025 Stats (with Rockies): 43 GP, 58.2 IP, 7.06 ERA, 6.03 FIP, 1.68 WHIP, 6.60 K/9, 3.53 BB/9, 1.99 HR/9, -0.7 fWAR

2026 ZiPS Projections: 30 GP, 30.0 IP, 4.49 ERA, 4.48 FIP, 1.37 WHIP, 8.13 K/9, 3.33 BB/9, 1.30 HR/9, 0.0 fWAR

An offseason critique of the decision-making from this Yankees’ front office is that they didn’t bring in any names to bolster the bullpen. Instead, they brought in a handful of reclamation projects that need lots of coaching before they’re able to trim their ERAs down to a respectable level. Chivilli, while a young pitcher with some promise, is one of the projects for pitching coach Matt Blake and his staff.

At just 23 years old heading into this season, Chivilli has some traits that could be highly useful and, more importantly, refinable for his second full season at the major league level (as my colleague Josh cited in his feature on the Chivilli trade). Between 2024 and 2025, his average fastball velocity jumped from 96.2 to 97.1 mph. In fact, his fastball sat in the 88th percentile among all major league pitchers after the 2025 season, according to Baseball Savant.

Chivilli also throws a changeup and a slider, which have proven to be decent secondary and tertiary pitches, as he tosses his slider at almost 91 mph on average and a whiff rate of over 45 percent, while his changeup comes in with a .225 batting average against and a 42.6-percent whiff rate.

However, his fastball and slider were hit a lot last season. Opposing batters hit .366 against the fastball and .302 against the slider, but the difference between the pitches comes in what batters were expected to do against them. The fastball—while an impressive velocity—wasn’t as lethal as it could have been, coming in with an expected batting average of .338 with very spotty command. On the other hand, the slider finished with an expected batting average of .202.

All those numbers are a bit concerning, considering everything at stake here for the Yankees. If they are unable to work through Chivilli’s troubles with his two main pitches, then that’s another option in the bullpen down the drain, and it makes the workload much harder for everyone who is already being relied upon to produce outs. However, there is reason to believe that the fastball can be figured out. For such a young pitcher to have that velocity relative to his peers is exciting, and getting him out of the Colorado altitude—and the taxing travel that comes with flying back and forth from Denver—should immediately give him at least a minor boost anyway. It’ll be the job for Blake and the Yankees to figure out why he’s been hit so hard and how to address it. It would be a project worth pursuing regardless; the pressure will just be higher given the bullpen’s other needs.

If Chivilli is going to work out with the Yankees, there needs to be some serious work on his ability to control the ball and find a strikeout touch (or even just a “get outs” touch). Clearly, Chivilli has the kind of arm that should be able to get outs at the highest level. He has a chance to be another helpful reclamation project out of the bullpen, following the likes of Tim Hill, Fernando Cruz, Ian Hamilton, and Lucas Luetge. Whether the Yankees are able to hit on someone like Chivilli and find a diamond in the rough could go a long way toward determining the bullpen’s fate in 2026.

See more of the Yankees Previews series here.