By Paul Semendinger
March 14, 2021
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We finally have a lengthy battle to see who was the best at a specific uniform number. #67 has been worn ten times in Yankees’ history.
Here’s a quick recap of the players:
Clay Christiansen (1984) – 24 games pitched (1 start), 2-4, 6.05
Dale Mohorcic (1988) – 13 games (traded to the Yankees on August 30 of that year) 2-2, 2.78
Mohorcic also wore #54 that year. It would be a big investigative task to determine his record in each number over those last few weeks of the season. (Hopefully a better player emerges.)
Greg Golson (2011) – 24 games (OF), .261/0/2
Melky Mesa (2012) – 3 games (OF), 2 at bats, 1 hit, .500 batting average
Mike Zagurski (2013) – 1 game pitched, 1/3 inning, 2 runs, 1 hit batter, ERA = 54.00
Jose Pirela (2014) – 7 games (2b/DH), 7 games, .333/0/3
James Pazos (2015-16) – 18 games pitched, 1-0, 5.40
Miguel Andujar (2017) – 5 games (3b/DH), 5 games, 7 at bats, 4 hits, .571
A.J. Cole (2018) – 28 games pitched, 3-1, 4.26
Nestor Cortes (2019) – 33 games pitched (1 start) 5-1, 5.67
It comes down to A.J. Cole or Nestor Cortes.
Cortes was a fan favorite. That helps. Still, his WAR was -0.4
A.J. Cole had a better ERA, but his WAR was only -0.2.
It’s close, but Cortes was the pitcher who was more fun, had the most games at the uniform number, and won the most games. Because of that he comes the official greatest Yankee to ever wear uniform #67.
Congratulations Nestor Cortes!
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Most of the research for this project came from Baseball-Reference.com.
