The Yankees’ bullpen has been a mess for much of the season, and David Bednar is now at the center of a problem that goes deeper than just overuse.
Bednar has been leaned on hard by Aaron Boone, in part because New York doesn’t have many ninth-inning options it trusts and in part because Boone has a habit of running his relievers into the ground. The results have been uneven.
Bednar hasn’t allowed a run since May 22, but before that he had given up at least one run in 11 of his first 21 appearances through May 18. For a stretch, calling him “trustworthy” would have been a stretch.
The biggest concern is what’s happened to Bednar’s curveball. That pitch used to be his best weapon, and last season it was nasty: a run value of six, a .172 batting average against, a .207 slugging percentage allowed, and a massive 43.1% whiff rate.
This year, though, hitters have been all over it. They’re batting .389 against the curve and slugging .722 off it.
The whiff rate is still a respectable 32.1%, but the drop-off is obvious, and some of the misses have been ugly.
That pitch was on full display during New York’s ugly 2-7 road trip in May. Bednar hung one to Brice Turang, who drove a two-out walk-off homer to finish off the sweep by the Milwaukee Brewers on May 10. Then, on May 17, he left another curveball right in the middle of the plate for Mets journeyman Tyrone Taylor, who tied the game with a homer to left.
On YES Network, David Cone and Paul O'Neill both took issue with the pitch. Cone described it as a lazy, get-me-over offering and pointed out that it gave a .188 hitter a chance to turn on the ball. O'Neill added that Bednar’s grip work, with his thumb visible on the seam, may have tipped the pitch to Taylor.
However it’s being read, the curveball hasn’t been nearly good enough, and Matt Blake and the Yankees need to get it right.
The fastball hasn’t exactly covered for it, either. Bednar opened the year with a troubling drop in velocity, and while it has started to come back, he still hasn’t matched last season’s average of 97.1 miles per hour. He’s sitting at 95.9.
The results there have improved some, but the numbers were still rough as of May 18. Hitters were batting .429 against the heater, up from .229, and slugging .643, up from .413 in 2025. Those figures have since settled to .302 and .356, respectively, but that still doesn’t make the pitch a strength.
Bednar’s splitter has remained effective, and he leaned on it to finish off Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the series opener against the Blue Jays, another ninth inning that had the New York Metro area holding its breath. But that pitch works because hitters don’t know it’s coming. It’s not something the Yankees can just throw over and over the way Tommy Kahnle uses his changeup.
So the question is simple: is Bednar tipping the curve, dealing with a mechanical issue, or fighting something else entirely? Whatever the answer is, the Yankees need it fast. If they don’t fix this soon, their trade deadline bullpen overhaul may need another addition.
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In this case, Boone framed the move as a matter of confidence in Cabreras ability to put the ball in play, not a numbers-driven calculation. That explanation is unlikely to calm a frustrated fan base while the losses keep piling up, especially with the club searching for any spark to stop the skid and get back to the kind of baseball that once made these decisions feel a lot less fraught. [Read more 🡒]