The Yankees’ rotation seems to be incredibly diverse, from some who get by with electric stuff to others who put away hitters with advanced pitchability. Despite the differences between each starter throws, their arsenals—the actual pitches they throw—happen to be very similar. Oddly enough, the patterns they show for each offering are extreme when compared to the rest of the league; some pitches are thrown more than any other, while some are almost never used.
Let’s start with the trademark Yankees pitch: the fastball. Unless the pitcher is CC Sabathia, velocity is almost a must. New York has the highest average fastball velocity in baseball, and it really isn’t close. Despite brandishing impressive heat on the…heater, though, using it too often is a big no-no. Velocity is important, but that can be rendered useless when the pitch is flat. We all know about Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Pineda, and Luis Severino’s impressive velocity and less-than-impressive results, and that’s because their fastballs lack movement. So it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that despite huge velocity, using the four- and two-seamer with high frequency is ill-advised.
For the pitchers who can’t rely on a show-me fastball, because of velocity or lack of movement, there’s also a splitter to fall back on. Masahiro Tanaka and Nathan Eovaldi are prime examples of this. There’s a number of teams that have all but outlawed the splitter because of health concerns—including the Twins, Giants, Padres and Rays—but the Yankees sure as hell aren’t one of them. Not only is their splitter usage the highest in baseball by a healthy margin at 7.55%, but they’ve also had remarkable success with the pitch: opponents have a .183 batting average against Eovaldi’s splitter and .216 against Tanaka’s.
The heater and splitter are well known to the Yankees’ staff, but another pitch is just as –popular: the slider. Every pitcher on the roster other than Ivan Nova are armed with a slider (min. 10 IP), giving them easily the highest usage in the league at 28.5%. The slider isn’t as unhittable as the splitter is, but it’s also been shown to be the most effective pitch in baseball in general. So although a .230 batting average against isn’t special compared to other teams in the same category, throwing an effective pitch with a high rate in general is a good plan.
Given how much the Yankees love the slider and splitter—ranking at the top of the league in both categories—there’s bound to be some pitches that aren’t really used often. That certainly is the case with the curveball and changeup. Curveballs are fairly popular around the league as a go-to outpitch, but unless your name is Ivan Nova the Yankees aren’t fans; they’re second-to-last in baseball when it comes to curveball usage. Yankees starters simply don’t like to throw the pitch, and the couple that occasionally try it, other than Nova of course, get hit hard.
The other pitch the Yankees refuse to use is the changeup. This is a bit odd, considering loud fastballs are often paired with a changeup to keep hitters off balanced, yet the staff still ranks last in baseball by changeup usage. Perhaps this may partly explain why the fastballs are so hittable: the Yankees are obsessed with the fastball, splitter, and slider (all hard pitches) but rarely go to the changeup and curveball (offspeed options).
Other than just being an interesting fact that the Yankees are so extreme when it comes to pitch usage, this can be something that hurts the Yankees. Of course, not having a diverse staff can make it easier on hitters. Digging deeper, throwing lots of hard pitches and few slower offerings allows for hitters to expect velocity, sometimes preventing pitchers to ‘throw it by’ batters. Although the Yankees’ staff isn’t having a bad season, this odd way to construct a rotation could be partially hurting them.
Photo: Anthony Grupposo / USATSI