Yankees Made Three Solid Additions to the 2024 Pitching Staff

The games have begun and wow, how about that 22-10 victory over the Tigers in the first spring outing of 2024? It means absolutely nothing, but nonetheless, seeing the Yankees score 22 runs catches your eye no matter who was playing, or who they were playing against. And then Juan Soto homering in his debut Sunday as the Yankees split squad put up 12 more runs, that was certainly nice, too.

Today what I thought I would do is write about the three new pitchers acquired in the offseason who I believe will make the 26-man roster. Hopefully this will give you a feel for who they are, what they’ve accomplished so far in the major league careers, and how they might fit into the Yankees plan this year. Let’s get to it.

Marcus Stroman

I know Stroman carries some baggage from every stop he’s had during his career, mainly because he’s an outspoken guy who isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers. But if you can get past that, and I can because all I really care about is performance, he’s been a pretty effective starting pitcher everywhere he’s been.

In parts of six seasons with the Blue Jays which encompassed 129 starts, he had a 3.76 ERA and a 1.278 WHIP (walks, hits per innings pitched); with the Mets in 2019 and 2021 (he sat out the 2020 Covid year by personal choice) he made 44 starts with a 3.21 ERA and a 1.228 WHIP; and with the Cubs in 2022 and 2023 he made 52 starts and went 3.73 with a 1.202 WHIP.

You look at those numbers and they scream consistency, so you generally know what you’re getting when he takes the ball and that’s a nice trait for someone who figures to be a No. 2 or No. 3 starter in the rotation (depending on what Carlos Rodon does this year).

Taking just his last two seasons in Chicago, among the 69 MLB starting pitchers who threw at least 250 combined innings, his 29.5 percent hard-hit rate (meaning balls that were hit 95 mph or harder) was tied for 14th-lowest which is impressive. And his 54.3 percent ground ball rate was fourth-best which is a metric the Yankees love. One of the main things they look for are pitchers who can keep the ball on the ground, especially righties pitching in Yankee Stadium with the short porch.

Stroman is a Long Island native who loved playing for the Mets, and he has made it very clear he’s thrilled to be with the Yankees.

“I don’t know if I envisioned it (growing up), but playing for the New York Yankees as an organization is like the pinnacle of the sport,” Stroman said last week. “I feel like every player when you embark on this journey to play at the highest level, I feel like everyone wants to be a Yankee at some point. It’s kind of like the world-wide phenomenon you grow up watching, even if you’re not from New York. It’s an honor. I’m very grateful and thankful to be part of this organization. It’s an honor to put the pinstripes on and I don’t take that lightly. I’m excited to get to work.”

Caleb Ferguson

The Yankees apparently were never all that interested in bringing back lefty reliever Wandy Peralta who wound up signing with the Padres. I think Ferguson is the reason why they were fine moving on from an ultra reliable pitcher who gave them 165 appearances over the past three years and pitched to a superb 2.83 ERA and 1.183 WHIP (walks, hits per innings pitched).

Ferguson should slot immediately into Peralta’s role as the go-to lefty for Aaron Boone. He came over to the Yankees from the Dodgers in a trade that sent pitchers Matt Gage and Christian Zazueta - who were never going to play for the Yankees - to Los Angeles’ farm system. Outside of Stroman and Juan Soto, Ferguson might be the best player the Yankees acquired in the offseason.

He debuted with Los Angeles in 2018 and missed the 2021 season due to Tommy John surgery. In his five seasons, he appeared in 201 games and had a 3.43 ERA and 1.288 WHIP and averaged 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings. Interestingly, he wasn’t really used in the postseason, and I don’t know why. He pitched in the first two rounds in 2018 as a rookie, but had no appearances in that World Series. He was not involved in 2019, 2020, 2021 (injury) and 2022, but finally in 2023, when the Dodgers were stunned by the Diamondbacks, he threw 2.1 hitless innings in two appearances.

Last year Ferguson set his career-high with 68 games and had a 3.43 ERA and 1.442 WHIP, with the bulk of his work coming in high leverage situations as 40 of his appearances were in games where the score differential was two runs or less. His ground ball rate has been decent at 44.6 for his career. You can figure he’s going to be a seventh- or eighth-inning setup man with the Yankees and his 95-96 mph fastball will play well. And he did have three saves last year for the Dodgers, so maybe if Clay Holmes is down, Ferguson could close.

Another thing I like about him is that his barrel percentage was 2.8 in 2023, eighth-best among 157 relievers who pitched at least 50 innings. I know this is a little too deep in the weeds, and I’m usually not all that into these Statcast numbers, but I thought it was interesting. What qualifies as a barrel for a hitter? An exit velocity of at least 98 mph and a launch angle between 26 to 30 degrees. It’s the nerds way of saying “he got all of that one” and in Ferguson’s case, it doesn’t happen very often.

Victor Gonzalez

Gonzalez is a 28-year-old left-handed reliever from Mexico who also came to the Yankees from the Dodgers in December along with shortstop prospect Jorbit Vivas in a trade that sent Yankees infield prospect Trey Sweeney to Los Angeles. The main reason for the deal was that the Dodgers had a 40-man roster crunch and needed space to add Shohei Ohtani and Joe Kelly.

Gonzalez made a dazzling debut in 2020 as he got into 15 games in that shortened Covid season and pitched to a 1.33 ERA and an incredible 0.738 WHIP. He then appeared in eight postseason games as the Dodgers ended their 32-year World Series drought and beat the Rays. Gonzalez had a 2.70 ERA in that postseason and was the winning pitcher in the Game 6 clincher against Tampa Bay when he struck out the side in the top of the sixth and LA took the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth.

Since then it hasn’t been great for Gonzalez. He pitched in 44 games in 2021 to a 3.57 ERA but his WHIP doubled to 1.443, and then he missed all of 2022 due to elbow surgery. He came back last season and got back on track with a 4.01 ERA and 1.099 WHIP in 34 games. He was left off the Dodgers postseason roster in both 2021 and 2023.

Last season, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts used him in the middle innings and I think he’ll be the same one inning guy for the Yankees. He throws his fastball in the mid-90s and also has a low 90s sinker, and he’s another ground ball machine with a career percentage of 57.4. Over the last two years the Yankees bullpen led MLB in ground ball rate (50.6 percent in 2023, 49.1 in 2022) so all three of these new pitchers should fit right in.

Two important things about Gonzalez are that he has one minor league option available so if he struggles, or the Yankees need to play around with the roster, he’s eligible to be sent down to Triple-A. And if the Yankees like him, they can control him for two more low-cost arbitration seasons as he isn’t eligible for free agency until 2027.

“There’s a lot to like,” said Boone, though keeping in mind that Boone has never said anything negative about any player he has ever talked about. “He’s a guy that, in his career, pitched in some big games. His reputation is that he’s not afraid of any kind of moment or situation. I’m excited for what he’s going to bring to our team.”

➤ Trent Grisham is going to be a very interesting player to watch. He was the afterthought in the Soto trade, but he might wind up playing a bigger role on this team than many think because he’s such an outstanding center fielder with two Gold Gloves in 2020 and 2022 to show for it. At the very least he’ll be a late-inning defensive replacement, and he’ll probably get one or two starts per week when Boone wants to give Aaron Judge a break from the position. The key will be his bat. He has been a terrible hitter with a career slash line of .216 average/.316 on base/.383 slugging for a .699 OPS. But if he can hit a little, he’s going to play. He crushed a 421-foot three-run homer against a Tigers minor leaguer on Saturday, so that was nice to see.

➤ Juan Soto is pretty good. Take a look:

➤ Gerrit Cole must see the writing on the wall at catcher because he spent his early throwing sessions with Austin Wells behind the plate instead of Ben Rortvedt. Late last year, Rortvedt sort of became his personal catcher, but for as good as Rortvedt is as a defender, he’s that bad as a hitter. If Wells shows enough on both sides, he’s going to make the team so Cole knows he needs to get in tune with the young kid.

➤ Carlos Rodon’s velocity is apparently up 4-5 mph from the same time last year in is early sessions and he’s also apparently in better shape. Let’s hope this all means he’s going to prove that the Yankees didn’t waste $162 million on him, but as I’ve always said, spring training means nothing beyond getting ready for the season, so nothing he does is Tampa will matter for me. Let’s see what happens in April and beyond. In his first outing Sunday he went 2.2 innings, threw 48 pitches, walked two, hit a batter, struck out four, and gave up a solo homer to Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk. And at least on the YES clock, he was consistently between 94 and 96 with his fastball.

➤ Speaking of guys in better shape, Giancarlo Stanton reported to camp looking svelte. Great. As with Rodon, my wish for him is to stay healthy in Tampa and we’ll see you in a month when the games start.

➤ The word so far in the early going is that Anthony Volpe’s main work in the batters’ box has been on flattening his swing in order to get more balls in play. Last year, his upper cut swing allowed him to hit 21 home runs, but he was otherwise awful. Among 136 players who had at least 500 plate appearances, his .283 on-base percentage was 135th, ahead of only Javier Baez of the Tigers, his BABIP, which is batting average on balls in play (so taking out homers and strikeouts) was .259 which was 130th, and his 167 strikeouts were tied for 16th-most. He just can’t have another year at the plate like that.