In the past few days, the Yankees have been in discussions to add another solid arm to their bullpen: leftist Justin Wilson. It took a weekend of three days of rumors in preparation for launchers and catcher reports, but according to Sweeny Murti WFAN, the two sides apparently reached an agreement. Andy Martino of SNY reports that will be worth $ 4 million.
This will be Wilson’s second term in the Yankees. He joined the team for the first time in 2015, when he came from Pittsburgh in the Francisco Cervelli trade. Although Wilson spent just one season on the stripes, it was not because of any specific weaknesses in his game. He did very well for a team that fought for AL East and won a spot on the Wild Card, launching for 3.10 ERA, 2.69 FIP and 1,131 WHIP in 61 entries (74 games). Wilson was probably the third most reliable man in the bullpen that year, outside only the dominant duo of Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances.
In the following off-season, the Yankees made some additions and found an opportunity to turn referee candidate Wilson into a Detroit hungry for some candidates. This turned out to be a brilliant move, as Chad Green joined the team along with Luis Cessa. As Green climbed into the Yankees’ bullpen, Wilson remained a constant relief arm throughout the game. In the past five years with the Tigers, Cubs and Mets, he has obtained 3.48 ERA, 3.45 FIP and 1.348 WHIP, while increasing his strikeout number to 11.0 K / 9. Wilson walked 4.1 strokes by nine in his career and that number remained the same in 2020, but although that is the downside of his game, it is at least less consequential in the intermediate relief (he will still lose clubs anyway).
For most of Wilson’s career, he was equally strong against lefties and righties, but took a more leftist approach in 2020. Righties had a modest 0.719 OPS against him, but lefties were terrible; he closed them to the sound of a triple bar of 0.115 / .207 / .231, although in just 30 plate appearances due to the shortened season.
Still, in this relatively new LOOGY-proof era with a minimum of three strokes, the Yankees must be confident that Wilson can still take out the right-handers as well. Considering that the .719 OPS in 2020 was not far from the .687 OPS versus in 2019, they are probably correct. That’s not much of a difference, and I don’t see much harm in him facing a righty in the middle of two lefties, or any other permutations like that. Wilson is just a good reliever to have around.
It certainly helps that Wilson is not near the top of the bullpen depth chart this time. The Yankees have Green, Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman to deal with the final entries in the game, leaving Wilson and Darren O’Day to provide more coverage of low (but still valuable) bets in the sixth or seventh.
The Yankees will need to free up a spot in the 40-player roster at some point to make room for Wilson, but either way, we will have more in the contract soon.