3. Jonathan Loaisiga hasn’t found his groove
The Yankees’ bullpen deserves immense credit for keeping the team afloat despite the batting order’s obvious struggles. Ironically, Loaisiga is the one guy who hasn’t gotten off to a good start despite the momentum he brought into the season after his brilliant 2021 campaign.
His 8.44 ERA in six appearances is comfortably the worst mark for the pitching staff. The good news is that Loaisiga has only really pitched poorly in two of his outings. He gave up one run while recording just one out against the Blue Jays early in the season, but it’s giving up four runs in just one inning of work in his most recent performance against the Orioles that’s really driving up his ERA.
Similar to the case with Cole, Loaisiga’s appearance on this list is largely a product of the large expectations the Yankees have for him. He’s supposed to be Boone’s most reliable weapon out of the bullpen. When he can’t help bridge the gap to closer Aroldis Chapman it puts New York in a tough spot.
Loaisiga’s stuff has looked good for most of his work on the year so there’s significant reason for optimism about his pitching moving forward. Look for his ERA to regress to the mean pretty quickly over the coming weeks.