Shortly after 6:00 pm on July 31 as trades were announced after the frenzied deadline, GM Brian Cashman summarized the deals by ticking off the names of David Bednar, Jake Bird and Camilo Doval as part of a busy week that resulted in seven new players being acquired.
During the roughly 15-minute video conference, Cashman summed up adding the three relievers as “mission accomplished” in the context of improving a group who produced an ERA over 6.00 in July.
Through the first full week since the deals, the results may be inconclusive, though David Bednar is the leader in terms of effectiveness with a pair of five-out appearances in one-run games.
Bednar debuted on Aug. 1 after flying to Miami from Denver and allowed two runs in a 13-12 loss when the Yankees blew a six-run lead and a 9-4 lead. He followed up his Yankee debut with a scoreless inning Monday in Texas when the Yankees wound up with an 8-5 loss in 10 innings in a game where Devin Williams allowed a tying homer to Joc Pederson and Bird allowed a game-ending homer to Josh Jung.
His most impressive work was a gutsy 42-pitch outing Wednesday afternoon in a game the Yankees needed in the worst way, getting the save by striking out Adolis Garcia. Bednar’s 102nd career save occurred after he told manager Aaron Boone he could finish the game, similar to how Mike Mussina waved Joe Torre off and finished a complete game in Detroit on May 31, 2006.
“That’s a dog effort right there,” Boone told reporters Wednesday. “I love that mentality. That’s who he’s been.”
His second set of impressive pitches occurred Saturday in another game the Yankees needed.
After various old-timers shared views on the current Yankees ahead of a ceremony honoring the 2000 team, who won a third straight World Series after being two games over .500 in June and losing 15 of their final 18 regular season games, Bednar was one strike away from ending the eighth with a 4-3 lead but walked Christian Walker. He kept the game tied by getting strikeouts with his fastball and then easily finished it off in the ninth.
“I can’t throw Bednar any deeper into a fire. He gets ahead of Walker there and ends up losing him. He doesn’t even flinch and then [gets the strikeouts] and then has the one-two-three ninth,” Boone said.
It was one of the least stressful late inning appearances in recent memory for the Yankees, whose bullpen ERA is a 4.24. It also occurred about 18 hours after Williams quietly spoke and said “I stink right now” following an outing that saw him allowed an RBI hit to Carlos Correa and a three-run homer to Taylor Trammell with both hits coming off changeups, a pitch opponents are hitting .211 against.
Williams is a free agent after this season and it is the reason why Milwaukee traded him to the Yankees in December. Bednar is signed through next season, giving the Yankees plenty of chances to see him in big situations after importing him from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
As for other imports, Doval allowed three runs and took the loss in his debut to start the disastrous weekend. He turned in three straight scoreless outings but committed a throwing error on a comebacker that set up the Yankees blowing the lead before recovering.
Out of the new guys, the early returns on Bird may be the worst . Bird was sent to Triple-A earlier this week after allowing seven runs in his first three appearances following a stint in Colorado where he posted a 4.73 ERA in 45 appearances.
It remains to be seen whether mission accomplished will happen the way the Yankees want but Bednar looked the part a few hours after Mariano Rivera tore his Achilles, resulting in an upcoming surgery for the greatest reliever of all time.
The Yankees would be aided by deeper length from their starters after seeing a starter complete six innings 43 times so far and none since July 30 – the day before the three relievers were added
The Yankees began this season with Williams closing out games. Then they pivoted to Luke Weaver when Williams faltered. After Weaver injured his hamstring warming up in Dodger Stadium June 1, Williams succeeded for a while before stumbling to the point where he allowed nine runs in his past five appearances.
Now it seems all roads in the ninth point to Bednar for most closing situations.