The Yankees Sign Filthy Reliever Adam Ottavino Making Their Bullpen One Of Baseball's Best Ever On Paper
Chad Green. Jonathan Holder. Zach Britton. Adam Ottavino. Dellin Betances. Aroldis Chapman.
I mean goddamn, that is one of the best bullpens ever assembled and I’m not exaggerating. I didn’t even mention the hopeful resurgence of Tommy Kahnle and up and coming lefty Stephen Tarpley. The Yankees bullpen last year was a disappointment from what it was expected to be. They were still 4th in ERA, 3rd in opponents batting average, and 2nd in strikeouts. That was including the contributions of Chasen Shreve and A.J. Cole keep in mind. Those two guys are long gone and hopefully never coming back….ever. That’s incredible news alone. Sure we lost D-Rob to Philly, but to be honest I was kind of tired of his tight rope act and killer home run balls. It was time to let him move on. Bringing back Britton and adding Ottavino is big time stuff.
So who is Adam Ottavino? He’s a New York boy, born and raised. He rocks number 0 which will be interesting to see if the team lets him wear it. No player has ever asked for it on the Yankees so it’ll be up to ownership if it’s allowed. He thinks he could strike out Babe Ruth every single time if he was alive in today’s era. I’m not here to argue, but frankly I love the confidence. He’s coming off a career year, posting a 2.43 ERA in 77.2 innings while striking out 112 in the process. He killed righties, holding them to a .142 batting average and an OPS of just .467. He’s very very good.
Being that he’s from New York he’s probably always dreamed of pitching here.
His stuff is downright fucking disgusting. I have no idea how anyone hits his slider. As a righty it starts in on your hands and finishes outside of the lefty batter’s box. Have fun.
Now, I have no idea how Gary is going to catch this guy. It’s probably going to look something like this and it’ll give us all anxiety, but it’s nothing we haven’t dealt with before.
Pray.
That Sox bullpen though looks fire.