Yankees’ new-look bullpen emerging as strength ahead of playoffs

Maybe Texas represented a turning point.

On Sept. 3, Clay Holmes imploded in surrendering a game-ending grand slam to the Rangers’ Wyatt Langford.

Much of the Yankees staff crumbled the next day, when Scott Effross, Ron Marinaccio and Phil Bickford worked in mop-up duty.

Since that series, Holmes has not seen the ninth inning and been solid elsewhere.

Beginning with a shutout of the Cubs on Sept. 6 — best remembered for Luke Weaver’s first career save — the Yankees have mixed, matched and managed just fine.

In the 140 games from the start of the season through that Rangers series defeat, the Yankees bullpen was the eighth least valuable in baseball, according to FanGraphs, and pitched to a middling 3.89 ERA.

In the 10 games since, Yankees relievers have been the second most valuable, per FanGraphs, while pitching to a majors-best 1.16 ERA.

“It’s a good time for everyone to be coming together right now,” said Ian Hamilton, who has returned healthy at the right time.

It is possible that the reimagined group has found its personnel — if not the exact slots for those personnel — ahead of the most important time of the baseball year.

“I do feel like a lot of guys are throwing the ball really well and capable of getting the last outs,” manager Aaron Boone said Sunday after 3 ²/₃ scoreless innings from his bullpen sealed a series victory over the Red Sox. “I feel like because the group … complements each other very well — meaning some are just more equipped to get righties or lefties, or a little bit of both, some are ground ball, some fly ball — I feel like that mixture, that complement, hopefully serves them all well.”

It has served the Yankees well and perhaps answered a season-long question of whether the group would ever emerge to be the strength it had been in previous seasons.

Twenty-six different Yankees have entered in relief this season, substantial time given to the likes of Caleb Ferguson, Victor Gonzalez, Dennis Santana and Michael Tonkin, all of whom have been moved.

It is not just that the Yankees have shifted Holmes out of the ninth, but that they have found several relievers capable of pitching in the largest moments, beginning with Weaver.

The closest thing the Yankees have to a closer has locked down two saves since the shake-up and struck out 12 over 5 ²/₃ scoreless innings.

“He’s been outstanding,” Boone said after Weaver faced seven batters and struck out five Friday. “I’m obviously comfortable with him in any situation.”

Ditto for Hamilton, who was excellent last season before an uneven start to his 2024.

His shoulder began to bother him, the soreness appearing “here and there,” he said, before a mid-June MRI exam revealed a lat strain.

The 29-year-old has returned feeling rejuvenated.

His velocity is up, his “slambio” has been untouchable and he has pitched 3 ¹/₃ one-hit scoreless innings while striking out six in September.

The righty entered a one-out, man-on-third jam in the sixth inning Sunday and needed eight pitches to strike out two.

“Definitely took some time to get back into some healthier mechanics and trying to use the body a little bit better,” Hamilton said. “Now just kind of trying to let things rip.”

If Hamilton was their best out-of-nowhere find last season, Jake Cousins might be the 2024 version.

Cousins was an afterthought pickup at the end of March, the Yankees essentially buying him from the White Sox, and the righty brought with him one of the league’s best sliders and an injury history.

A UCL injury derailed his season in 2022; last year, a shoulder injury cost him significant time.

But when healthy with the Brewers from 2021-23, he pitched to a 3.08 ERA in 51 games.

“I’ve always thrown well, I’ve just had injuries,” Cousins said recently. “And in the past I’ve walked a lot of people. And this year I’m just trying not to walk people and trying to attack them. So I think the biggest difference is just I’m getting myself into better counts.”

Since he was brought up at the end of June, the righty has pitched to a 2.34 ERA in 34 games.

Add in the reliable and excellent Tommy Kahnle, along with emerging lefties in Tim Hill and Tim Mayza, and the Yankees may finally have found an inner circle of relievers.

Mark Leiter Jr. was landed at the deadline to be a part of the solution for a bullpen that did not strike out enough hitters.

Leiter has been spotty — the stuff obvious, but resulting in far too many home runs — but it is possible the Yankees upturned enough rocks to thrive without him.

“I’m enjoying it,” Boone said of the new-look bullpen. “I’m enjoying just the focus of that group down there and how well they’re throwing the ball.”