The bullpen takes shape

Matt Thornton

 The Yankees signed Matt Thornton yesterday to a two year $7 million deal and he is expected to be a LOOGY for next seasons Yankee bullpen. With him in the fold the Yankees bullpen now is David Robertson, Shawn Kelley, Matt Thornton, Preston Claiborne and a lot of question marks. To be honest I only put Claiborne on the list because Girardi mentioned him specifically when talking about sure things in the bullpen. That still leaves three spots in the pen open and while they can technically fill those spots internally it would probbaly be a good idea if they did not have to do so, however a lot of it depends on how they finish their rotation. If they sign another starting pitcher, whether it be Tanaka or anyone else that will leave Adam Warren, David Phelps, Michael Pineda, Vidal Nuno and any guy they happen to invite to spring training to compete for the 5th spot in the rotation and the long relief spot in the pen; however if they do not sign another pitcher then they will need to use their starting depth right away and the bullpen will suffer for it. The Yankees do have several players who will be competing for bullpen spots but they are very thin on veteran relief pitchers and while I have full confidence in David Robertson being the closer I am more concerned with handing Shawn Kelley the setup job, not that I have any issues with him being able to handle the 8th innings simply that I am not sure that he can be as good as he was for most of last season. Kelley was terrible in April and even worse in September so we are essentially basing his success on 30 innings and while I know he was injured in September its still a limited sample size to make this guy a key feature of the bullpen and if he stinks up.; Cody Eppley was effective for a longer period of time in 2012 and he was so bad in 2013 that he would up playing independent league baseball. All I am really saying is that while I know the Yankees could fill out their bullpen with internal candidates I think it would be really good for them to bring in some veterans to balance out the risk, they could decide to go after someone with a track record Fernando Rodney or go after a guy like Jesse Crain who is coming off a solid season but one in which he was injured for the entire second half. Personally I would like them to go after the Jesse Crain or Ryan Madson types, specifically Jesse Crain as he will likely be cheaper than someone like Rodney and stands a good chance of being more effective too. Thornton made a ton of sense for the Yankees because he is great against left handed batters and while he is no longer the great setup man that he once was the White Sox he will fill a need for the Yankees at a much cheaper cost than Boone Logan, but the Yankees still need to add a dependable arm so that they do not need to rely on Preston Claiborne or Dellin Betances in the 7th inning from the start of the season. The Yankees have had good bullpens with Girardi but they just lost the greatest relief pitcher of all time and there is probably going to be some drop off but they can help mitigate that by adding a veteran to this relatively inexperienced bullpen.