Why the Yankees can win without trading for a pitcher

2. Lean more on the bullpen

There’s a popular misconception that Aroldis Chapman is the only truly dominant reliever in Aaron Boone’s bullpen. Regular observers of Yankee games certainly understand that isn’t true. The depth of the relieving corps is also a massive potential strength for the team.

Boone could simply decide to mitigate the weakness of his starting pitching by going to his bullpen earlier in games. Specifically, that would require some of the team’s lesser known arms to play a larger role. Relievers like Chad Green, Jonathan Holder and Adam Warren would need to pitch a lot more in the fifth, sixth and seven innings of games. Each of the trio has been pretty good this season, but they’d need to maintain their level of production despite a heavier workload to make this strategy work.

Pushing them forward in the game would, of course, put added stress on David Robertson, Dellin Betances and Chapman to take care of the last three innings. Betances and Chapman have held up their end of the bargain this year. Robertson’s performance to date has been inconsistent. He’d need to pick it up to make the bullpen bulletproof.

The key to this strategy is to spread the workload evenly throughout the staff. Chapman and Betances can’t be further taxed. It would require quality efforts from Boone’s middle relievers to make this a productive plan.