Yankees 2026 Pitching Staff’s Bang for the Buck

Yankees 2026 Pitching Staff’s Bang for the Buck, Season to Date

Mid-June Thoughts from Cary Greene

June 29, 2026

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Welcome to part two in the Yankees “Bang for the Buck” mid-June assessment of the Yankees, ahead of the looming MLB Trade Deadline. Today’s article will examine the Yankees pitching staff in order to assess which pitchers are living up to their contracts so far this season and which ones aren’t.

As was mentioned in Positional Bang for the Buck article that ran this past Saturday, most MLB teams are in the final phases of “Seeing what they have” in-house as they’ve already called up their prospects or depth pieces for cameo appearances - sometimes prospects force their way into a call up due to underperforming members of a team’s active roster, but most of the time the call-ups are necessary due to injuries.

Only a few Yankees pitching prospects have been called up for a cup of coffee so far this season - Elmer Rodriguez has received a very hard look by the Yankees as he’s been given Angel Chivilli, Brendan Beck, Yerry De los Santos, Yovanny Cruz and Kevin Castro.

Beck, the Yankees 21st overall prospect, remains stretched out as a starter in Scranton - where he’s posted a 7-2 overall record paired with 3.22 ERA. Beck is striking out just over a batter per inning and he may be the Yankees best injury insurance depth piece at this time, other than Rodriguez who the Yankees currently favor as their most ready-now starter in their system.

Meanwhile, the Yankees moved Carlos Legrange, their number four overall prospect, to the Scranton bullpen recently in a move that is designed to fast-track his ascent to the Majors. While the Yankees may still view the towering Righty as a long term starter, many have compared him to a slightly harder throwing version of Dellin Betances at this stage in his career. Lagrange has triple-digit gas in his arsenal, but he’ll need several weeks to go through a de-load period and build his arm strength for more frequent bullpen usage.

This far, the experiment is already yielding impressive numbers. In Lagrange’s first few relief appearances, he racked up multiple strikeouts and hit 101+ mph, including a dominant 4-inning outing against the Syracuse Mets during which he struck out seven batters. With a Lagrange promotion feeling pretty much inevitable, the Yankees will need to assess their current bullpen needs very carefully.

On one hand, I imagine a 2027 Yankees rotation with both Schlittler and Lagrange at the top, followed by Cole, Fried and Rodon. I’d really hate to see him moved into a permanent Dellin Betances type role if instead he has a chance to harness his vast potential as a starter. Lagrange could become a true workhorse at or near the top of what could be a very dominant Yankees rotation.

Yet on the other hand, if the Yankees are going to win a championship this season, they will likely need to inject Lagrange into the back end of their bullpen. The Yankees are certainly rolling the dice here, tampering with Lagrange’s development at the exact moment in his career where what he needs most of all, if viewed as a starter, is reps. Many young pitching prospects get their first taste of MLB in the bullpen though, so hopefully this move won’t throw a monkey wrench into Lagrange becoming a starter at the MLB level.

We all know that Hal Steinbrenner’s refusal to spend money this past offseason is exactly why the Yankees presently have some pretty glaring bullpen needs. The problem the Yankees now face could have easily been planned for and negated if Brian Cashman were cleared by Hal to write a couple of sizable checks this past offseason. But, ‘ol alligator arms Steinbrenner wasn’t able to reach the bill and so here we are - once again facing a “good enough is good enough” type scenario.

Regarding this year’s MLB Trade Deadline, the Yankees - like most teams who will be Deadline buyers, probably already have a good idea of the players they’ll be shopping for. MLB’s expanded postseason format has served to increase the number of contending teams in recent years and this has given the Deadline a very robust amount of activity of late. This season’s Trade Deadline will be no different.

Likewise, teams whose GM’s are in a selling mindset, will be looking to do the usual, which is to extort maximum value for relief pitchers. Meanwhile, front line aces and star level position players will also be marked up as high as possible. Selling teams will also be looking to execute salary dumps as well. As usual, Trade Deadline deals are all about two teams matching up - with the buying team looking to fill a need that they believe will help them contend and the trading team hoping to obtain various pieces that will help them become a contender one day.

In the first installment in this series, I shifted gears to outline Sun Tsu’s core battle strategies that he recorded in his now immortal Art of War doctrine. He separated battle outcomes into three categories.

1.     Total Victory: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

2.    High Risk: “If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat.”

3.    Certain Defeat: “If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. 

New York Yankees fans expect World Series championships and they haven’t had one since 2009 - the championship drought is now 17-years and counting. As of today, the Yankees are playing as well as the best teams in baseball, with a winning percentage very close similar to that of the Braves, Brewers and Dodgers.

With the Trade Deadline edging closer and closer with every passing day, Brian Cashman hopefully is focused on Sun Tsu’s concept of Total Victory. In order for Cashman to have a successful Trade Deadline, he must first assess the Yankees needs accurately.

Using my c-Value formula outlined in the previous installment of this series while also incorporating an improvement that was suggested by a true Yankees sharpie who prefers to not take credit for his incredible editing skills, there is now a c-Value calculation that considers how much money each player has been paid as of today, which is then measured against FanGraphs f-Dollars stat. I’ll post the pitching portion of the data in the comments section for reader review purposes.

The bottom line is that players will either have positive or negative c-Values and of course and c-Value is a great way for a GM (or even a casual fan) to easily gauge a player’s current worth. Is each player living up to the money they are being paid? I think that's a rather important question to ask, especially when the Trade Deadline is looming in the near future. In line with Sun Tsu’s Art of War tenants, it’s pretty difficult to win a battle if you don’t understand and intimately know the strengths and weaknesses of the army you’re fighting with.

Today we’re taking a mid-June snapshot of where each Yankees player’s c-Value is trending. Doing this allows us to “Know Ourself” as Sun Tsu advocates. Yankees fans can rest assured, the players who are providing the biggest chunks of c-Value should be huge parts of what will hopefully be a Yankees championship push. Meanwhile, using c-Value will also show us which players should be targets for Cashman to upgrade from.

Compounding matters is that, by my estimation and calculation, the Yankees need at least two, maybe three positional upgrades in order to contend for a championship. I’ve already revealed that in order to build a stronger positional part of their roster to help with a championship push, the Yankees should trade for Ryan Jeffers, Luis Arraez and Seiya Suzuki. Each of these improve this year’s team and would help to fill key areas of need that the Yankees currently have. These three potential acquisitions also wouldn’t require a ton of prospect capital to trade for, which makes them realistic trade targets for a team with such a weak farm system like the Yankees.

On the pitching front, the Yankees also have some key needs. If knowing yourself is a huge part of a successful battle plan, per Sun Tsu, then the best way to identify the Yankees biggest needs is to first select the players the Yankees should plan on as being part of their postseason roster.

Cam Schlittler has established himself as the unquestioned ace of the Yankees starting rotation. What he’s been able to do, in just his first full season as a Yankees starter, has been nothing short of breathtaking. Schlittler is the early front runner to win the American League Cy-Young award. His numbers are downright gaudy, he’s in the top 4.5 percent of the League at limiting walks and he’s in the top 7 percent of the League in strikeouts. Schlittler is flashing a pitching run value of 100 – it just doesn’t get much better than this, we’re watching what may turn out to be a very magical season unfold for Schlittler.

Probably the most significant piece of Schlittler’s impact on the Yankees rotation is that his c-Vale presently is $28.4 million - which means the bang for the buck he’s produced for the Yankees this year has been simply indispensable.

Besides Schlittler’s glittering season to date, perhaps the savior of the rotation thus far has been Will Warren, who remains a solid innings eater in the Yankees rotation again this season. Warren lives off his fastball and by no means does he light up a StatCast page, but he’s held the Yankees rotation together and has been worth 1.7 fWAR season to date. Warren’s c-Value so far this season sits at $13.3 million, which makes him the second most valuable Yankees pitcher behind Schlittler.

Another Yankees starter who has produced a solid $6.8 million c-Value is Ryan Weathers, who even outdueled the reigning American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal this past Wednesday evening. There’s been a lot of speculation that the Yankees might move Weathers to the bullpen at some point this season, in order to limit his innings. Considering that he’s pitched the second most innings on the team (86.2) behind Schlittler, the speculation may be warranted. In 2022, Weathers pitched a career high 123 innings for El Paso of the Pacific Coast League, so he’s rapidly approaching a red zone where he’s never gone before. Considering the shoulder issues he had with the Marlins last season, which kept him sidelined from early June through mid September, the Yankees probably should take a cautious approach with his work load as the season moves along.

Due to injuries, the Yankees big three of Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon have only pitched a combined 130 innings so far this season. Based on the amount of time each of these aces have missed, they’ve posted a negative $18.6 million c-Value to date. Providing Cole and Rodon continue to make starts and if Fried can come back healthy, the Yankees should begin to benefit in terms of production from the combined $90.25 million that they’re contractually obligated to pay the trio this year.

Throughout his career, Cole has been the most effective postseason starter of three, carrying an 11-6 record with a 2.77 ERA. Fried owns a 6-7 postseason record and a 5.31 ERA and Rodon is even worse with a 3-4 record and a 7.53 ERA. While the Yankees presently seem to be counting on all three of these starters to spearhead a championship run, Fried and Rodon have yet to prove that they’re big game, post season pitchers thus far in their careers.

Barring a trade for a front-end starter, the Yankees postseason rotation will likely be Schlittler, Cole, Fried and perhaps Rodon. Given the number of days off in the expanded playoffs format, the Yankees likely wouldn’t need a fifth starter, so both Warren and Weathers would likely pitch out of the bullpen. Rodon had a negative $1.7 million c-Value last season, which basically means he was a bit overpaid based on his on-field performance. Still, he’s a crafty left-hander who, when he’s on, can still be effective. Due to having a postseason bullpen stocked with both Warren and Weathers, the Yankees would likely keep Rodon on a short leash during his postseason starts. The same might also be true of Fried.

Without question, Brent Headrick has rather shockingly been the Yankees best reliever so far this year. His ERA is a paltry 1.66 and dropping at the time of this writing, as he’s been able to hold opposing hitters to a .219 average while using his devastating fastball/slider pitch mix to strike out 25% of the batters he faces.

Headrick and his .254 ERA+ has been nothing short of crucially important to the Yankees bullpen this season. Imagine where things would be without him. The eyeball test says he generates exceptional extension with his delivery and it’s no surprise that StatCast rates Headrick’s extension in the 90th percentile of all MLB pitchers. He’s also providing a tick over $6 million in c-Value this year, so he’s made Brian Cashman look very smart for nabbing him from the Twins in February of 2025, who had DFA’d him due to an injury marred 2024 campaign.

With the pages falling off the calendar as the season has progressed, Headrick has moved into Boone’s circle of trusted relievers. The higher the situational leverage is, the sharper Headrick performs, which means he’s looking like a lock to be a big part of the Yankees postseason plans this year.

Headrick has reverse splits and he’s incredibly tough on right-handed batters, so while early this season, it seemed to many that having both Headrick and Tim Hill on the roster was a bit redundant, Yankees fans can now clearly see that they are polar opposites.

Speaking of Tim Hill, he was having a terrific season until May 22nd when he gave up 3 earned runs and blew a lead against the Rays. Since then, he’s posted a 10.61 ERA over 9.1-innings. Prior to May 22nd, Hill’s ERA was a stellar 1.37 across 19.2-innings. Fitting the very definition of a true Lefty Specialist, Hill is best in medium to high leverage situations, where he uses his ability to keep the ball on the ground to get the Yankees out of jams when facing tough left-handed batters with men on base.

The danger of having a guy like Hill on the roster is that if he’s forced to face right-handed batters, he usually gets hit pretty hard. Hill wields a double-edged sword that the Yankees likely can live with. If Ryan Weathers does wind up getting moved into a bullpen role at some point, it would give the Yankees another left-handed reliever with reverse splits, so I don’t see Hill falling out of favor in the Bronx any time soon.

Matt Blake will need to work hard to get Hill back on track ASAP if he’s to remain in Boone’s trusted inner-circle of relievers. From a c-Value perspective (-$2,000 currently), Hill is marginally worth having around, but he would be a candidate for the Yankees to upgrade from if an obtainable, better option existed.

Possessing a wipe-out splitter that he uses to pound the bottom of the strike zone with, right-hander Fernando Cruz has been very tough of left-handed batters this season and he’s also demonstrated a seemingly natural proclivity towards pitching in higher leverage situations. Boone doesn’t hesitate to go to Cruz in the later innings and thus far, things have worked out pretty well based on the results Cruz has generated. Cruz has generated $4.8 million in c-Value this year and he’s been a very important bridge reliever for the Yankees so far this season - pitching to the tune of a 2.20 ERA. It appears that Cruz has now firmly cemented himself into the Yankees bullpen plans going forward and justifiedly so.

During his time as the Yankees closer, David Bednar has been a little bit up and down, but he’s largely been able to at least get the job done. Bednar has been worth a hair under $1.3 c-Value this season, so the Yankees are absolutely getting positive bang-for-the-buck results from him this season. His on field performance is strong enough that he should absolutely remain a viable, late-innings reliever for the Yankees. But, should he remain the team’s closer for the remainder of the season?

For some strange reason, I knew that Cashman was going to trade with the Pirates for Bednar last season, as Bednar was one of the few closers available who didn’t require a high prospect cost to acquire. I was okay with the move last season, given how selling teams in the marketplace were extorting prospect value from buying teams in need of relief pitching. However, this past offseason, I’m on record for often writing that the Yankees needed to add not one, but two back of the bullpen relievers. I was in favor of signing fireballer Robert Suarez and the usually steady Phil Maton.

Suarez has been absolutely lights-out for the Braves this season, perhaps his 726 ERA+ stat is the one that best sums up how ridonculous he’s been this season. The Braves front office also brought back closer Raisel Iglesias to pair with Suarez and the strategy has made the back end of the Braves bullpen among the best in MLB this season.

Meanwhile, Maton hasn’t been very good with the Cubs this season, but that’s mainly due to him getting off to a very bumpy start to the season. Since May 19th, Maton owns a 2.25 ERA, but he’s struggled with his command this season and opposing batters are also raking against him from both sides of the plate. Maton does have a 2.57 postseason ERA to his name and if he continues to trend well over the next month, he might be a reliever for Cashman to keep an eye on as the Deadline nears.

However, due to the 2-year 12.5 million contract the Cubs inked Maton to this past offseason, if they did decide to trade him it would likely be as part of an effort to dump some payroll. With the Cubs being firmly in contention at the moment, as they’re presently tied for a Wild Card berth, I don’t see them being a team that would trade one of their better relievers - especially considering that he’s begun rounding into better form of late.

It's probably no secret that Cashman and the Yankees would jump at the chance to upgrade from Bednar if the right closer were made available at what they felt was a digestible price in prospects. Outside of the Yankees trading for Aroldis Chapman, I don’t foresee this year’s marketplace providing a clear upgrade over Bednar and for the record - I hope the Yankees don’t even remotely consider bringing Chapman back. Based on his attitude related issues, Chapman doesn’t deserve to ever wear the Yankees uniform again - at least that is my opinion here and I’ll leave it at that. Feel free to disagree with me in the comments below, if indeed you do. Chapman is still elite and I don’t dispute that one bit. I just don’t think he’s a fit.

What is pretty clear is that the Yankees have at least three or maybe four spots in their bullpen where they could make upgrades. Ryan Yarbrough has been worth nearly $1 million in c-Value this season and surprisingly, StatCast says the Yankees might want to consider hanging on to him. He’s featuring an above average fastball this season (78th percentile) and a solid offering of secondary pitches.

Where the Yankees do have clear opportunities to upgrade begins with Camilo Doval, whose minus $1.76 million c-Value clearly shows he’s not worth the money the Yankees are paying him to occupy a roster spot. Doval has good velocity on his sinker, but he simply can’t keep MLB hitters off balance well enough due to his lackluster assortment of well below average secondary offerings. Doval may have one of the worst changeups I’ve ever seen thrown, which is why he rarely throws it. While his sinker has generated great results for him, opposing batters are mangling his cutter and his slider.

Given that Doval is basically a one trick pony, it’s probably time to either trade him or DFA him, as the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. If the Yankees do wind up moving Carlos Lagrange into their bullpen, he likely would render Doval’s services as no longer needed.

Another Yankees reliever who should be traded on the grounds that, as a middle reliever, he struggles too much when facing left-handed batters is Paul Blackburn. When/if the Yankees move Ryan Weathers into their bullpen, he likely replaces Blackburn’s roster spot. Ironically, they each profile similarly as both dominate right-handed batters but struggle against those that hit from the left side. Weathers has better stuff, so hopefully his stuff would play up a couple ticks once the Yankees de-load him and get him ready for shorter burst appearances.

That brings us to the obvious can of worms. Jake Bird has also been rocked by left-handed batters so far this season. It’s past time for the Yankees to offload Bird as well and his roster spot should go to whatever reliever Cashman is able to trade for at the deadline. Hopefully, that reliever is a back of the bullpen option, someone who could either hand the game to Bednar or at times, replace him entirely.

One pitcher who is the “one who got away” and who may be available at this year’s Trade Deadline is Garrett Whitlock of the Red Sox. He’s in the midst of another good season with the Red Sox despite having to battle through some right knee inflammation. The Yankees and the Red Sox are supposed to consider one another as hated rivals, but ironically, there’s a bit of a recent trade history between the two ball clubs that suggests if the Red Sox fall any further out of contention than the 7 games they’re currently behind in the Wild Card standings, perhaps the two teams could match up in a trade.

Whitlock might be capable of taking over the eighth inning for the Yankees and that would go a long way towards lengthening the Yankees bullpen. It doesn’t necessarily appear that the Yankees need to make a series of trades to upgrade their bullpen, considering that as a unit, the Yankee pen is presently rated by FanGraphs as being the 12th best in League, having accumulated 2.6 f-War season to date. Unfortunately, when the onion is peeled back, most of that value is thanks to Headrick, Bednar and Cruz.

Barring a trade for a solid 8th-inning upgrade, the Yankees one saving grace regarding their farm system is that they do have some pitching depth. I’m anticipating most of that depth will need to be traded away if the Yankees want to upgrade at the Deadline positionally. One name that might be worth it for Cashman to try to hang onto though is Bradley Hanner who features a four pitch mix, not counting his seldom thrown changeup. Hanner’s bread and butter is his four-seamer, which sits around 94 mph with natural sinking action that helps him get a lot of swings and misses and helps the pitch play up. He also features a 79 mph slider that helps him generate gobs of grounders and other pitches he’ll throw in any count are his cutter and his sinker.

If Hanner were to lock in with his best offerings, he has the potential of sticking in an MLB bullpen, but he’s probably not a better option than a stud from outside the organization - like a Garrett Whitlock. The one advantage to rolling the dice on Hanner, or another internal candidate, is that later on in the season, when Clarke Schmidt comes back, the Yankees could potentially move “Schmidty” into the pen and in a corresponding move, they could option whomever they promoted to fill in.

Trading for a more polished reliever would help the Yankees bullpen in the near term, but it would also create a roster crunch later in the season. All indications are that Cashman will look to upgrade the bullpen at the Deadline, but the Yankees aren’t as desperate presently as some may think they are.

It's pretty easy to predict that Aaron Boone will need to lean very hard on his bullpen in the postseason this year, if the Yankees are to advance to the World Series.

There’s been a significant amount of buzz out there recently about the Yankees being in the mix for an ace-level starter like Tarik Skubal for example. If they had a rock solid bullpen and deep farm system from which to deal, a strong case could be made for them to acquire a starter like Skubal, which would put their rotation over the top - but let’s face it. The Yankees have neither a stacked bullpen nor a loaded farm system.

This brings me to the conclusion of the Bang for the Buck assessment of where the Yankees roster sits currently and what potential upgrades Cashman should be looking at to guide the Yankees 2026 Deadline strategy. It would be a huge win for the Yankees if they were able to land a trio of position players like Ryan Jeffers, Luis Arraez and Seiya Suzuki while also netting Garrett Whitlock at this season’s Deadline. As always, your comments are invited below. What do you think the Yankees Deadline strategy should be this year?

Should the Yankees bring in a proven corner outfielder, or should they continue to let Jasson Dominguez and or Spencer Jones acclimate to MLB pitching? Dominguez did hammer a Tarik Skubal mistake out of the park this past week to carry the Yankees to a big win over the Tigers. Does this grant Dominguez more of a chance to be relied upon?

Also, is it time to move on from Ryan McMahon and if so, would acquiring Arraez to man second base while moving Chisholm to third base be a winning strategy? Perhaps Anthony Volpe could move to second in a similar strategy, which would make trading for Arraez unnecessary?

Is Ryan Jeffers the ideal solution for a Yankees team that desperately needs catching reinforcements? Lastly, should the Yankees target Garrett Whitlock in order to upgrade their bullpen, or is there someone else who might be available that could be an even better fit?

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As an added bonus - here is the position player chart: