After adding Devin Williams last offseason, the Yankees had to feel confident about the state of their bullpen. Williams, perhaps the best reliever in the world, was joining a group that finished sixth in ERA the year prior, and now had a fearsome duo at the backend in the form of Williams and incumbent closer Luke Weaver.
Those best-laid plans went up in smoke quickly. Williams got off to a nightmarish start en route to the worst season of his career, while Weaver struggled with injuries and inconsistency much of the year. The bullpen would prove to be the Yankees’ biggest weakness, so much so that Brian Cashman made several moves for relief pitching at the deadline, overhauling the entire relief corps as the club headed into the stretch run.
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There’s been plenty more turnover in the bullpen since the end of the 2025 campaign, with Williams and Weaver gone, and several other notable names, including Ian Hamilton and Mark Leiter Jr., also heading out the door. The Yankees didn’t make any major moves to replace those arms, instead opting to take a number of low-risk fliers on players like Angel Chivilli and Cade Winquest.
With that in mind, do you see the bullpen proving to be as much of a problem in 2026 as it was in 2025? The unit finished 23rd in ERA last year, and didn’t even see any overall improvement in that figure after Cashman added David Bednar, Camilo Doval, and Jake Bird at the deadline. After opting not to sign a major reliever in free agency, it’s not hard to imagine relief pitching once again looking like the Yankees’ Achilles heel once the season starts.
Yet there remains reason for optimism. For one, despite all the doom and gloom, the cold numbers paint a rosier picture, with FanGraphs projecting the Yankee bullpen as the eighth best in the league right now. The team could see a positive regression just based on getting a full-season out of Bednar, while the other 2025 deadline additions, Doval and Bird, could hardly play worse than how they started in pinstripes (and Doval, for his part, looked very sharp by the end of 2025). We also can’t forget Fernando Cruz’s name, the right-hander proving to be one of the better under-the-radar relief finds in the league last season, or the possibility that someone like Chivilli or Winquest could prove to be the 2026 version of Cruz. And, if the team still can’t get enough out of the group as constructed, well, there’s always the option for Cashman to make another series of bullpen-reinforcing maneuvers at the trade deadline.
What do you think? Will the Yankee bullpen once again be a disaster, or are brighter times ahead in the late innings? Let us know in the comments below.
On the site today, Josh previews Aaron Judge’s season (a fourth MVP incoming?). Also, Jeff celebrates Mike Lowell as part of our Yankee Birthday series, the third baseman only playing eight games as a Yankee before being shipped away. Later, John gives us the rundown on the White Sox as part of our general MLB preview series, and Peter highlights a few adjustments to keep an eye on in spring training.
Today’s Matchup:
New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays
Time: 1:07 p.m. EST
Video: Gotham Sports App, Sportsnet, MLBN
Venue: TD Ballpark, Dunedin, FL