The Yankees traded for Mark Leiter on Tuesday before the trade deadline
In a trade to improve the bullpen, the Yankees acquired Mark Leiter Jr on July 30 a few hours before the trade deadline from the Cubs in exchange for infielder Ben Cowles and pitcher Jack Neely.
Cowles, who was drafted by the Yankees in the 10th round in 2021 out of University of Maryland, had a .295 average and a .848 OPS in 88 games at Double-A Somerset this season in his fourth season in the Yankees minor league system. Neely, who is a 6'8" right handed pitcher who was selected by the Yankees in the 11th round in 2021 out of Ohio State, had a 2.61 ERA in 22 games at Double-A this season and a 3.38 ERA in nine games at Triple-A Scranton this season. It made sense to trade these two prospects to acquire a relief pitcher who could improve the Yankees bullpen right now.
Leiter Jr. had a 4.21 ERA in 39 games this season with the Cubs with a 1.101 WHIP and a 2.11 FIP, which proves his ERA should have been lower and that he was unlucky. He allowed just two homers in the 39 games and had an impressive 53 strikeouts in 36.1 innings for a 13.1 strikeouts per nine innings.
The right-hander comes over throwing the ball extremely well. He has a 0.00 ERA over his 7.2 innings pitched in July. He struck out 14 of the 23 batters he’s faced before joining the Yankees. In 7.2 innings across seven games in July before being traded to the Yankees he allowed just one walk, zero hits and totaled 14 strikeouts, which proves how well he had been locating his pitches and how successful he had been.
He turned the corner from how he pitched in June when he had a 10.80 ERA in eight games after allowing eight earned runs in 6.2 innings. He struggled to a lesser degree in May but in April he dominated with a 0.87 ERA after allowing just one earned run in 10.1 innings with nine strikeouts.
He gets a lot of credit for coming into the game and pitching well the same day he was traded to the Yankees and arrived from the airport basically when the game started.
In that first game on Tuesday, the 6'0" righty came into pitch the 10th inning and got the first two batters out. After intentionally walking J.T. Realmuto so that that there would be runners on first and second and a force at any base, he allowed a weakly hit infield single to the speedy Johan Rojas. He then stepped up big time and got Bryson Stott to fly out to center with the bases loaded on an 89 mph cutter to end the inning and send the game to the eleventh.
He was not as effective in his game the next day on Wednesday when he allowed an earned run with three hits in an inning pitched. However, he was able to limit the damage and was able to pick up his 14th hold of the season. He had two strikeouts and that gave him an impressive 16 strikeouts in his 9.2 innings pitched in July with just that one earned run in the month.
Leiter Jr’s splitter this season has been a dominant pitch for him. Opponents have a .053 batting average (3-for-57) with zero extra base hits, 39 strikeouts and a 62.7 whiff rate. He is a really good strikeout pitcher out of the bullpen that the Yankees were lacking.
He uses that dominant pitch (splitter) 33.3% of the time, which is basically just as often as he uses his sinker (34%).
Leiter Jr. immediately becomes the best swing-and-miss strikeout reliever in the Yankees’ bullpen. He had a very good .196 opponent batting average this season with the Cubs (it is now .209) and a 100 ERA+. He has held lefties to a .200 batting average this season but righties have a .226 average against him this season.
The Yankees went into Tuesday 19th in MLB in strikeout percentage out of the bullpen at 22 percent. Leiter is at 33 percent this season. The Yankees relief pitchers need to miss more bats and Leiter does that and is really good against lefties, which is a positive.
Leiter Jr. has two more years of team control as well. This gives pitching coach Matt Blake and the pitching department more time to unlock another level of effectiveness. The Yankees have done very well improving and having success with relief pitchers that they have acquired from other teams in recent years. Some examples are Lucas Luetge, Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta, Michael Tonkin and Jake Cousins.
He is in his fifth MLB season. He made his debut on April 28, 2017 for the Phillies. He pitched for the Phillies in 2017 and 2018 and also pitched for the Blue Jays in 2018. His next MLB season was in 2022 with the Cubs, who he played for until this season when he was traded to the Yankees.
He is not one of the real impacts high leverage relievers who were rumored to be available like Pete Fairbanks or who did get traded like Tanner Scott (1.18 ERA in 44 games) to the Padres but he should still be solid and give the Yankees something that they were lacking.
Of Leiter Jr.’s five MLB seasons, his best campaign was last season when he had a solid 3.50 ERA with an impressive 77 strikeouts in 64.1 innings and a 126 ERA+. He did not play in MLB in the 2019 season due to having Tommy John surgery and then signed with the Diamondbacks and Somerset Patriots of the then independent Atlantic League put did not pitch for either team due to the pandemic.
In the 2021 season, he pitched at the Double-A and Triple-A level in the Detroit Tigers organization and had a 3.77 ERA with 145 strikeouts in 114.2 innings. He made 19 starts out of his 25 games that season but since returning to MLB in 2022 just four of his 145 games have been starts and those four came in 2022, which was his first season with the Cubs.
It would have made sense if the Yankees acquired a high leverage back of the bullpen relief pitcher but if Ian Hamilton and Scott Effross can return to the team from injury and pitch well and Leiter Jr. can reliably get outs and strike out batters and the other acquisition in Enyel De Los Santos contributes, then the bullpen will be in good shape. Hamilton, who is expected to be cleared to throw live batting practice soon, has a 4.55 ERA in 27 games this season but last season had a much better 2.64 ERA in 39 games with 69 strikeouts in 58 innings, which means his ERA should go down.
Like Leiter Jr, De Los Santos gives the Yankees swing-and-miss stuff in the bullpen. The right-hander has a 32.5 whiff rate and 28.2 strikeout rate this season.
The Yankees traded minor league outfielder Brandon Lockridge to the Padres for De Los Santos and Thomas Balboni Jr. In 44 games with the Padres this season, the 6'3" righty who is in his sixth MLB season had a high 4.46 ERA with 48 strikeouts in 40.1 innings pitched.
He has a 5.37 FIP, which means he is a little lucky that his ERA is not higher than 4.46. He’ll need to limit the hard contact. De Los Santos is in the 1st percentile in barrel rate (13.9%) this season, which is not a category that a pitcher wants to be in first place in.
De Los Santos’s was much better the previous two seasons, when he had his two best seasons of his career. In 2022, he had a 3.04 ERA with a 125 ERA+ and 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings in 50 games. In 2023, he had a 3.29 ERA with a 130 ERA+ and just four homers allowed in 70 games. This proves he has potential to be a good bit better than he has been this season.
Leiter Jr. has a few family ties to the Bronx Bombers since Leiter’s uncle (Al) and dad (Mark Sr.) both pitched for the Yankees. His cousin (Jack) played high school baseball with Anthony Volpe at Delbarton School in New Jersey. Leiter Jr. grew up in Toms River, NJ just like well known former Yankees Todd Frazier, who was the star of the Toms River little league team that won the Little League World Series in 1998. Frazier went 4–4 in the championship game.
Leiter Jr. went to Toms River North High and stayed in New Jersey for college as he attended New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. He was drafted in the 22nd round by the Phillies in 2013.
Part of the reason why they needed bullpen help before the trade deadline was that Victor Gonzalez and Caleb Ferguson, who the Yankees acquired in separate trades with the Dodgers in the offseason, both recently were designated for assignment because they did not pitch well this season. Ferguson had a 5.13 ERA and a 1.500 WHIP and an 81 ERA+ in 42 games with the Yankees and Gonzalez had a 3.86 ERA and a 5.94 FIP in 27 games with the Yankees.
Dennis Santana is another pitcher the Yankees acquired in the offseason who did much worse than they thought he would. Santana was released after having a 6.25 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP in 23 games with just 19 strikeouts in 27.1 innings.
