Confirmed deal : Yankees could sign this perfect free agent target for the bullpen

 

With the Yankees shopping for left-handed bullpen help, they’ve been connected to various options on the market as we swiftly approach the start of Spring Training. The Yankees have yet to land their southpaw and do not have a left-handed reliever currently on their 40-man roster, which I imagine they would like to change before their Opening Day matchup against the Milwaukee Brewers. While Tim Hill is a familiar option, he’s yet to sign which could indicate that what he’s asking for is higher than what any team would feel comfortable paying him.

 

After being acquired for cash considerations from the Twins, the Orioles shifted Danny Coulombe away from a four-seamer that was starting to flounder and taught him a cutter, a pitch that has quickly become one of the most reliable weapons in his arsenal. Last season it got hit pretty hard, but it did a good job of generating whiffs and getting criticial outs, resulting in the seventh-highest Run Value/100 for any cutter over the past two seasons (min. 300 cutters thrown).

It set the foundation for a dominant two-year stretch where he had the fourth-best ERA for any left-handed reliever with at least 80 IP at 2.56. The other weapon that came to prominence with the Orioles was the development of a big sweeping slider, a pitch that teams usually didn’t push lefties to develop. Sweepers have some pretty drastic platoons as opposite-handed hitters do well against those big breaking balls, but due to the 49.3 inches of vertical drop that he generates on that sweeper, it can get outs against lefties and righties.