Yankees dodge sky-high prices, trade for Mark Leiter Jr.

It’s been a relatively quiet Trade Deadline day so far, with many pointing to the so-called “sky-high prices” for pitching as a reason why we’ve seen so little movement. In an effort to dodge those inflated asks, Brian Cashman lowered his sights a bit and brought in right-handed reliever Mark Leiter Jr. from the Cubs.

Leiter was far from the buzziest name headed into the trade deadline, and he alone will not solve the Yankees’ bullpen issues. But with bigger name relievers costing a fortune this summer, the Yankees may have found a nifty way to solidify their relief corps.

Mark’s father of the same name and his uncle, Al, both had long careers in the majors (each debuted with the Yankees), and the 33-year-old has pitched in parts of five big-league seasons of his own since debuting in 2017 with the Phillies. He made a brief stop in Toronto in 2018 before undergoing Tommy John surgery in March 2019. It took Leiter a little while resurface in The Show, but he found his home with the Cubs from 2022-24. His surface numbers have never overwhelmed, as he has a 4.53 ERA and 95 ERA+ to his name for his career. For 2024, he’s put up a 4.21 ERA and 99 ERA+.

But one doesn’t need to look much further to find reasons to believe Leiter can and will improve on those top-level figures, which only tell you so much about a bullpen arm. He has a stellar 2.11 FIP this year, thanks to a scalding 13.1 K/9 rate, against a 3.2 BB/9 rate. And he’s been particularly excellent over the last month. Since coming off the IL on July 9th, Leiter has a hidden perfect game going, retiring the 23 batters he’s faced in the span, 14 of them via strikeout.

Based on those strikeout numbers, you might think that Leiter is some kind of late-inning fireballer, but you’d be mistaken. Leiter’s sinker has averaged 91.3 mph this year, one of the lowest average velocities you’ll see in this day and age on a reliever. Instead, Leiter relies on some pretty nasty secondary stuff to beat opposing hitters.

The best weapon in his arsenal is a top-of-the-line splitter that Leiter uses against hitters of either handedness. The split gets good drop, darting beneath the bats of right-handed hitters and away from left-handed swingers:

Leiter uses the split about a third of the time, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Yankees ask him to increase that usage. The splitter has generated a completely filthy 63-percent whiff rate, and hitters are batting just .053 (!!) on the occasions where they can even manage to put it in play. With Tommy Kahnle (who uses his changeup about two-thirds of the time), the Yankees have shown they’re able and willing to get a pitcher to lean heavily on an offspeed pitch as their primary offering, and it might behoove Leiter to follow suit.

Leiter also has a cutter, curveball, and a sweeper that he debuted this year. His cutter has generally been hit hard, while his curve has some good drop to it and has at times generated solid results. As they’ve done with plenty of other relievers in the past, the Yankees will likely try to mold Leiter’s pitch mix in a way that helps him put up better numbers than he has for his career.

The cost for Leiter was pitcher Jack Neely and infielder Benjamin Cowles. Neely has had a nice season pitching in relief in the high minors, with a 2.81 ERA in 63 strikeouts 41.2 innings (albeit with a worse K-rate in Triple-A). Cowles has hit well with Somerset, running an .848 OPS as a 24-year-old in Double-A. While both have performed well this year and there was a scenario where the Neely might have been able to help out the big-league bullpen if his command translated to the majors, neither is a high-level prospect.

That gets to the heart of Cashman’s thinking here. The prices for proven relievers such as Jason Adam and Carlos Estévez have been described as luxurious. Perhaps the Yankees are getting too cute by a half, but I think there’s a good chance Cashman and Co. have found a hole here. Leiter has been lights-out recently and has a dominant pitch in his arsenal. The Yankees must feel that they can get top-level results from Leiter while avoiding the huge prices other teams have coughed up for relief rentals. Leiter may not have eye-popping velocity, but he still brings the swing-and-miss the Yankees so desperately want to add to their bullpen. As a bonus, he could do so for years to come, with Leiter not hitting free agency until after 2026.

There may be other shoes to drop today, with the Yankees linked to multiple bats, and even possibly starting pitching. For now, their first move of the day looks like a lower-profile one that adds an interesting arm to the late-inning conversation and at a much more palatable cost than you might expect. What do you think of the Cashman and the Yankees’ work here?