If it ain’t broke, don’t break it.
The Yankees bullpen was expected to be a strength this season with the acquisitions of Rafael Soriano and Pedro Feliciano. Soriano struggled as Mariano Rivera’s setup man before going down with an elbow injury in mid-May. Feliciano hurt his shoulder in spring training and has yet to throw a pitch for the Yankees.
The loss of Soriano, who pitched an inning in a minor-league game Tuesday night, did not cripple the Yankees bullpen. In fact, it gave David Robertson a chance to step up. Robertson has allowed two earned runs 23 1/3 innings since Soriano’s injury, lowering his ERA from 1.93 to 1.21. Robertson has a little K-Rod in him, flirting with danger before shutting the door. But his ability to throw in those pressure-filled situations cannot be doubted after two stellar months.
Joe Girardi has avoided answering who will fill the setup role when Soriano returns.
“(Soriano) has been our eighth-inning guy,” the Yankees manager said Tuesday, according to reports. “We’ve got to see how he’s throwing and how he’s feeling before I can make any determination. The big thing is we’ve got to get him back healthy and throwing the way he’s capable of. We’ll just see what happens, but we’ve got to get him back first.”
He won’t be able delay much longer with Soriano coming back soon. But there would not even be a question if Soriano did not have the Yankees on the hook for $35 million over the next three years, approximately $34.5 more than they have committed to Robertson.
When Soriano was healthy, he complained that pitching in the eighth inning did not come with the same excitement as a save situation. It’s a demotion for Soriano, who had 72 saves for the Braves and Rays in the two years before signing with the Yankees. It’s a demotion for Soriano, even if it came with a hefty raise and his only superior is Rivera, the best closer in baseball history.
Stepping into the eighth-inning role is Robertson’s big chance, one he never could have imagined getting with Soriano, Feliciano and Joba Chamberlain all above him in the bullpen pecking order in March. Nor one the Yankees could have imagined when their brass overruled GM Brian Cashman to shell out a huge contract for a setup man.
When the Yankees won the World Series two seasons ago, a key during the regular season was Phil Hughes unexpectedly stepping into the setup job with dominant results. It was not what the Yankees planned, but it worked and there was no reason to tamper with it even though they viewed Hughes as a starter and moved him to the bullpen to make room in the rotation for Chien-Ming Wang.
It doesn’t have to be permanent. If Robertson falters and Soriano thrives in the seventh-inning role, the Yankees have the option to revert.
But sometimes Plan D is better than Plan A. And it would be a mistake for the Yankees to mess with it because of a big contract.
