Yankees Recall Chad Green

The Yankees have recalled right-handed reliever Chad Green from Triple-A Scranton and optioned lefty Nestor Cortes Jr., the team announced.

After a marvelous run with the Yankees from 2017-18, during which Green logged a 2.18 ERA/2.33 FIP with 12.26 K/9 and 1.99 BB/9 in 144 2/3 innings, he got off to such a poor start this season that the team demoted him to Scranton on April 24.

Before the Yankees temporarily booted him from their 25-man roster, Green worked 7 1/3 nightmarish frames in which he allowed 14 earned runs – the same amount he yielded in 69 innings two years ago – on 15 hits (four home runs) and issued four walks against seven strikeouts. Green also saw his hard contact rate soar to nearly 55 percent, up from the low-40s over the previous two years, as hitters crushed him for a .512 weighted on-base average/.459 xwOBA, per Statcast. Most of the damage has come versus Green’s previously irreproachable four-seam fastball, against which batters have hit .435 and slugged .870 this season.

Fortunately for Green and the Yankees, the 27-year-old reverted to his dominant ways during his 7 1/3-inning trip to the minors, where he fanned 14, walked two and allowed two earned runs on five hits. He’ll now rejoin a Yankees bullpen that has fared well in 2019 even in spite of Green’s woeful big league output. A pair of expensive offseason signings – Adam Ottavino and Zack Britton – as well as the revived Tommy Kahnle have all been effective bridges to closer Aroldis Chapman, and New York’s hope is Green will add another imposing force to that game-ending group upon his return.