2009 Yankees: Phil Hughes Was an Unsung Hero

Welcome back to the next chapter of 2009 Yankees: The Last Championship - a week-by-week remembrance of the year in which they gave us their most recent World Series title. One of the unsung heroes was Phil Hughes, a pitcher who had been unable to find his footing as a starter since first debuting in 2007, but once he was transferred to the bullpen in June he became a key component in the team’s success.

NEW YORK (Aug. 12, 2009) - When you launch yourself back to 2009 as we are in this weekly series, you see the very clear reasons why the Yankees were able to win the World Series.

Adding big-money free agents CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, and A.J. Burnett changed the makeup of the team and each played massive roles in the team’s success with Sabathia and Burnett combining for 32 victories and Tex finishing second in the AL MVP ballot with a season for the ages as he led the AL in homers (39) and RBI (122).

But there was also the outstanding play up the middle from Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano who combined for 416 hits and 210 runs; there was a 30-homer, 100-RBI performance from Alex Rodriguez even though he missed more than a month of the season; Johnny Damon, Nick Swisher and Melky Cabrera were solid producers in the outfield; Hideki Matsui continued to rake in his age-35 season; and Mariano Rivera saved 44 games and pitched to a 1.76 ERA.

But when you dig a little deeper, you also see the critical and surprising contributions made by Phil Hughes, and not at all in the way one would have expected - a trusted late-inning reliever as opposed to a starting rotation regular.

“Phil Hughes is an example that this game is not easy and you are going to go through some struggles,” Joe Girardi said a couple months after he and Brian Cashman made the seismic decision to pull Hughes from the rotation and use him out of the bullpen, a move that turned out golden. “What it’s all about is how you get out of those struggles.”

Back in 2004 following a standout high school career in his native Southern California, Hughes was ready to become a Los Angeles Angel. Twenty minutes before they were set to make their first-round pick in the draft, Hughes was their guy. They indicated to his agent, Nez Balelo - a name you may recognize as he today represents Shohei Ohtani - that they were going to pick a high school player at No. 12 overall, and based on their draft board, it was almost certainly going to be Hughes.

The two sides had even reached an agreement on the bonus money the right-hander would get for signing, $1.75 million. “That’s what I was thinking,” Hughes said of his expectation that he’d be chasing his big league dream practically from his backyard.

And then at the last minute, literally, Angels owner Arte Moreno insisted that his people pick Long Beach State ace Jered Weaver who had been voted the top amateur player in the country in 2004 and was the younger brother of Jeff Weaver, a solid but unspectacular major league veteran who you’ll remember spent 2002 and 2003 with the Yankees.

Hughes was crushed, but that lasted all of five minutes because the Yankees called and told him he was their man should he make it to the 23rd overall pick, which he did.

When the Yankees selected Hughes, they envisioned him eventually becoming a key cog in the rotation, perhaps as early as 2007. Sure enough, he sailed through the farm system dominating at every level, and he made his MLB debut on April 26 of that year. However, it took a little while for the whole “key cog” part expectation to come true.

In his second start on May 2, 2007 Hughes was pitching a no-hitter with one out in the seventh inning at Texas when he pulled his hamstring delivering a pitch to Teixeira, then the Rangers first baseman. He missed the next two months and when he returned, he did not have the same electric stuff and he finished the season with a 4.46 ERA in 13 starts.

Still, there was excitement around Hughes as 2008 dawned and in full health, he was set up to be the No. 4 starter behind Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina and Chien-Ming Wang. Instead, he got rocked in six April starts and wound up spending most of the year in Triple-A and suddenly, there were huge question marks attached to his name as he was looking like a first-round miss.

Hughes didn’t even make the team coming out of spring training in 2009, but after three very nice starts in Triple-A, he was called up to take the spot of the struggling Wang, hoping that he’d finally be able to establish himself. Again he didn’t pitch well but here’s where the story takes a turn. Despite his 5.45 ERA in seven starts, the Yankees did not send him back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre when Wang rejoined the team; they moved him to the bullpen thinking his stuff would play better in one- or two-inning bursts a few times a week.

By the time Hughes pitched part of the eighth and all of the ninth against the Blue Jays on Aug. 12 at Yankee Stadium in a game the Yankees would ultimately win 4-3 in 11 innings on Cano’s walk-off RBI single, Hughes had become one of the unsung heroes of the season.

Hughes’ bullpen debut came June 8 against the Rays, a 1-2-3 inning, but then he got tagged for two runs by the Red Sox during a 3.2-inning stint and Girardi had to be wondering about using Hughes in any high leverage spots. Well, Hughes sure changed his mind.

From June 14 through July 26 Hughes made 16 appearances and did not allow a run, ultimately reaching 25 consecutive scoreless innings before the White Sox got him for one on July 30. It was the longest scoreless streak by a Yankee since Rivera went 30.2 innings unscathed at the end of 1999.

“The way the American League plays, the bullpen is very important,” Girardi said. “So many teams work counts and extend innings. You need to be strong there and shorten games as much as you can. That’s why we need him there. I didn’t really envision him as the eighth-inning guy. I envisioned using him in two-inning stints, the sixth and seventh, using him anytime. But he’s been hard to keep out of that role because he has thrown the ball so well.”

The Aug. 12 game fell midway through another scoreless streak, one that encompassed 12 appearances and 12.1 innings.

“You can be bitter or embrace it,” Hughes said. “Right now I’m happy with where I’m at. It’s nice to know that I have some value, whenever it is. I’ve always felt when I’m right, I can do a lot of things. I was fully expecting to be sent down (when Wang returned) so to be able to stick around and pitch in the bullpen, I was pumped about it. I think this is good for me. I’m learning more here than I would be in the minors.”

His teammates certainly agreed. Jeter said, “He has been huge for us. There is usually some sort of adjustment phase and it doesn’t seem like he has had one.”

The ultimate praise came from the best reliever in the business. “I love it,” Rivera said of his new primary setup man. “He looks like he has been there for years. He’s throwing strikes and that’s the key. You have to come out of the bullpen throwing strikes and he’s doing that. He’s attacking, attacking, attacking with everything he has.”

Here’s how the rest of Week 18 went for the Yankees:

• Aug. 10: The Yankees’ seven-game winning streak came to an end when the Blue Jays pulled out a 5-3 victory. Sergio Mitre made an error that helped Toronto score three runs in the fourth, and he also allowed solo homers to Aaron Hill and Lyle Overbay, the latter breaking a 4-4 tie in the fifth.

• Aug. 11: Down 4-3 in the eighth, Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada hit back-to-back solo homers to put the Yankees ahead, and then Cabrera and Damon tacked on RBI singles and New York beat the Jays 7-5.

• Aug. 13: The Yankees headed West to begin a 10-game road trip and they started it with a bang, an 11-1 romp over the Mariners as Matsui went 4-for-5 with two home runs, four runs scored and five RBI.

• Aug. 14: Teixeira snapped a tie in the top of the ninth with a solo homer and Cano doubled and scored with two outs on a single by Swisher to give the Yankees some breathing room for Rivera, who did not need it as he secured a 4-2 victory with a nine-pitch, 1-2-3 save.

• Aug. 15: A third straight win in Seattle came courtesy of a four-run outburst in the second inning, the big blow a two-run homer by Swisher.

• Aug. 16: The Mariners avoided the four-game sweep by taking the finale 10-3 as they jumped on Joba Chamberlain, Alfredo Aceves and recently acquired Chad Gaudin for 15 hits and three walks.

NEXT SATURDAY: Everyone knew Hideki Matsui was a star when he left Japan to join the Yankees, and then he spent seven years in the Bronx proving it.