The Yankees announced today that right-handed reliever Chad Green has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a right elbow strain. Fellow righty Ron Marinaccio has been recalled in a corresponding move.
Green’s move to the IL is hardly surprising, given the events of recent days. He was removed from Friday’s game after a meeting on the mound with the team’s training staff, with clear concern about an injury. Yesterday, manager Aaron Boone described the injury as “significant” while adding that they would still try to get more information. Today’s announcement of the elbow strain diagnosis will do little to quell fears about Green’s situation, as arm injuries are always concerning for a pitcher. However, it seems further testing is still forthcoming, with Lindsey Adler of The Athletic relaying word from manager Aaron Boone that medical opinions are still being collected.
Regardless of how long he’s ultimately sidelined, it’s an unfortunate development for both Green and the Yankees. The righty has somewhat quietly been one of the most effective and durable relievers in the game over the past few years. This is his first trip to the injured list since 2016, his debut season. His 326 relief innings pitched from 2016 to the present are bested by only 21 other pitchers in the league. He hasn’t just been taking mop-up duty either, as he has a 2.79 ERA out of the bullpen in his career, with a 32.8% strikeout rate and 5.9% walk rate, racking up 11 saves and 52 holds.
While this is no doubt a blow to the Yankees’ bullpen corps, it’s also very unfortunate for Green personally, as he is set to reach free agency at season’s end. After years of being healthy and productive, suffering a serious injury just months before heading into the open market is incredibly unlucky timing, to state the obvious. However, even in a worst-case scenario where Green is headed for significant surgery that will put him out of action for more than a year, he’d likely still garner interest on a back-loaded or incentive-laden contract, such as those recently signed by Ken Giles, Kirby Yates or Tommy Kahnle. Of course, both Green and the Yankees will be hoping to avoid such a scenario.
Losing Green is a blow! As the article points out he has been a consistent producer in the Yank’s bullpen for sometime . Hope he makes it back soon. Surprised they didn’t recall Sears. With the injury to Green he was immediately eligible to return to the majors. Guess they wanted a right handed to replace Green.
I’m just not going to miss white knuckleing it through Green outings. Not that I’m happy he’s hurt.
17 and 18 aside I haven’t felt too comfortable with him. White knuckling it is a perfect way to describe his outings though.
I do believe the Yankees have the arms in house to replace him. This is a core strength for them, but there’s a decent chance fans will be white knuckling even more with the replacements. Bad timing for Gil SS they might have given him a shot. Ditto for Ridings, whose injury remains a mystery.
*as*.
I don’t know, @Yankes4life. I think Yankee fans have taken Green a bit for granted. He’s not peak 17/18 anymore, when he was unhittable, but he’s still been good, putting up a 122 ERA+ with an 11.4 K/9 over the last four seasons, including a 125 ERA+ this year, and just seemed to be rounding into form. He’d be closing for other teams. They do have a few interesting options in the minors to try out, but the odds of any of them outperforming Green is not high.
The Yankees are weaker today in the pen than they were yesterday, and that would be my main concern as a Yankee fan.
Lord, yes. At best, the hope is they can replace Green with someone as effective. They likely won’t though. Cashman will be searching over the next month trying to identify the next Holmes on another team if one of their in-house options isn’t up to the task. He won’t panic though. No reason to.
Since 2019, Green’s value seems to me inflated by WAR. His Win Probability Added is in the negative range and his Clutch rating is near the bottom among qualified relievers. There are only six relievers with more losses since 2019. He used to be money; not so much in the past few years. I think Cashman missed the curve to trade him.
P.S.
Since 2019, Green has the highest FIP in high-leverage innings of any Yankee pitcher with at least 10 such innings, 5.11, and his ERA in high-leverage innings is 7.75. He also leads in HRs in high-leverage innings (9) since 2019.
Very bad timing for Green if he needs surgery. He’s been an excellent reliever for the Yankees, but they can replace him. Marinaccio is very good. Excellent swing-and-miss potential, and they have at four other arms in AAA who can step in if he’s not ready.
Ashes, ashes…
Hopefully he is back soon. I know he isn’t elite but he fills a back of the bullpen role. Don’t want to see any injuries to this staff. They are the reason the Yankees are winning this year. Never can have enough pitching l.
Boone termed Green’s injury “significant.” Wasn’t that his description for Gil’s injury as well? I guess terming elbow injuries as “significant” is a euphemism for Tommy John surgery?
Yeah, Boone’s vocabulary is…….limited. He tends to find a word and stick with it for, well, the whole season (every opportunity).
He’s also the master at telling people blatantly obvious information, like guys requiring TJS have “significant injury.” Uh, no duh, bro. I can’t listen to any Yankees post-games anymore because of his interviews.
Agreed Clipper. I miss the old Girardi terse post game interviews.
“WTF you want me to say? We stunk. Do you want me to repeat that?”
Just once I want Boone to get angry with the media when they ask about Hicks totally sucking, or Gallo not being able to hit pitches right down the middle, even though I know he will use exactly the same language he does when he yells at the umps: “You need to make the adjustment! You’re not making the adjustment! Make the f’ing adjustment!”
Boone, or any manager, won’t utter TJS until all the medical evaluations are in and the player has made a decision, even if they’re 95% sure. They get the first evaluation, which if it indicates TJS, they’ll say it’s significant or pick the manager’s favorite word. They’ll then get the second opinion, and once confirmed, then they’ll announce it as official. It does make sense. A team doesn’t want to be providing medical info on a player until the player has received all options and has made the final decision. It appears Green is now in that between zone. He’s likely been told he needs TJS. He’ll get a second opinion on Monday. We know where it’s going though.
Another pitcher out for the year. It is hell to be a pitcher.
Not a surprise to me, he hasn’t looked right in a long time. Seemed like he was nursing some kind of injury.
I agree. He didn’t quite have the pop on his fastball that he used to and they will be able to replace him.
What Is The Best Case & Worst Case Scenario With Chad Green,After What Just Happened?
How Would You Replace Him,If He Is Declared Done For The Season,Like,Who Would You Either Call Up Or Make A Trade For?
I recall on MLB Network, Brian Kenny had a segment where he would go into analytics in baseball and a guest talked about how they attempted to track pitchers and their mechanics and the probability of needing TJS. At the time (approx. 2017) they stated how Green significantly avoiding potentially needing TJS by becoming a relief pitcher instead of starting. Now it appears Green’s elbow is starting to bark.
Yeah, it’s a valid point. Keep in mind though, I think that speaks to his overuse too. He pitched a lot last year, in high-leverage innings. In fact, his 83+ innings were probably top-3 in the league for relief pitchers, not including the incredibly stressful postseason innings.
That’s part of the issue I had with Boone. Recall Mariano Rivera’s outings & how Torre would handle him? They would sit Rivera down if it wasn’t a close situation. Wouldn’t even bring him in the game to save him. I think in many ways Boone fails to manage the players themselves because he’s so focused on the analytical side.
Fortunately, I see a change in that this year, for whatever reason, & however minimal, & it seems to be making a difference. But he runs the risk of tasking Holmes & King the same way if he becomes too reliant on them.
Bauer and his trainer were experimenting with a portable ultrasound unit recently. Measuring the distance between the bony landmarks where the UCL attaches pre workout and then post workout. That distance increases with duress as the ligament stretches, making it more prone to tearing. The theory being that rather than pull pitchers based on pitch count, you scan them between innings and pull them when the ligament stretch reaches a certain percentage. Interesting stuff.
He’s not the dominant force he was in 2017-2018 but he’s still an above average relief pitcher. Hopefully Loaisiga turns a corner and regains his 2021 form.
Green almost assuredly was going to be pitching for a new team in 2023. Likely still is. He wasn’t going to be signed after this season as other teams would pay him more for a higher-leverage role than the Yankees would. As was the case with Betances, they got their six years of lower-cost, high-peak production, and then let him move on. I suppose however there is now an increased chance he’s back for one more year. Relievers can make it back quicker from TJS than starters, so if Green does have TJS, he probably has a half a season in him to show other teams he’s back and healthy. He might prefer to stay with the team he knows best for that half a season.
My guess though is the Yankees let him move on, and they actually sign Britton for the 2023 campaign. Both sides seems to want to keep the relationship going.
You don’t think they will try to bargain buy Green for a two-year deal? That has Cashman written all over it….
How About If They Trade Luis Medina,Yoendrys Gomez,Alexander Vargas,Oswald Peraza,Everson Pereira & Miguel Andujar To The Detroit Tigers for Andrew Chafin & Alex Lange?