By Ryan Bologna
Feb. 17, 2021
New York Sports Nation

 Pho­to by G Fiume/Getty Images

Many thought the Yan­kees could have used one more arm in the bullpen when this off­sea­son started.

After New York squared away the high­er pri­or­i­ty moves they want­ed to make with DJ LeMahieu, Corey Klu­ber and Jame­son Tail­lon, they trad­ed Adam Ottavino.

That Ottavi­no trade indi­cat­ed that the Yan­kees were not done for the off­sea­son. He was owed $9 mil­lion for the last year on his con­tract and the Yan­kees did not trust him enough in the play­offs and also pre­dom­i­nant­ly used him against right­ies. Ottavi­no is not a bad pitch­er, but for the usage the Yan­kees got out of him his con­tract was not worth it.

Weeks lat­er we found out what the Yan­kees did in the bullpen to make up for Ottavino’s depar­ture. They signed relief pitch­ers Dar­ren O’Day and Justin Wil­son. O’day’s con­tract costs $2.45 mil­lion for lux­u­ry tax pur­pos­es while the cost of Wilson’s deal is not con­firmed yet but believed to be for around $2–3 million.

These are not splash moves by any means, but even if we assume Wilson’s deal is for $3 mil­lion both of those deals come to less than $6 mil­lion on the lux­u­ry tax pay­roll. So both of these deals com­bined cost less than Ottavi­no did by him­self. Not to men­tion that there is a chance the Yan­kees will trust both of these pitch­ers more than Ottavino.

So it looks like Bri­an Cash­man might have improved the depth of the bullpen while also cre­at­ing more pay­roll flex­i­bil­i­ty. It could prove to be a smart move, and maybe it cre­at­ed enough room to bring Brett Gard­ner back.

Some­thing else to note is that O’Day is a righty and Wil­son is a lefty. So this cre­ates more options for Aaron Boone to go to in var­i­ous situations.

Wil­son is a for­mer Yan­kee. He had a good sea­son for the Yan­kees in 2015 before get­ting trad­ed to the Tigers for Chad Green and Luis Ces­sa. This year the Yan­kees could use Wil­son in matchup based sit­u­a­tions in ear­li­er innings before Green, Zack Brit­ton and Arold­is Chap­man come into the game.

Many Yan­kees fans know O’Day from his days in Bal­ti­more. He is a sidewinder who could essen­tial­ly step into the role Ottavi­no used to have and be used against right­ies. O’Day also does not strug­gle with walk­ing bat­ters as much as Ottavi­no does. So maybe he will even be an improvement.

These moves are not as notable as some of the oth­ers this off­sea­son, but qui­et­ly Cash­man has cre­at­ed more flex­i­bil­i­ty in the bullpen for the 2021 season.