The season-ending injury to star reliever Michael King was a significant blow to the New York Yankees. With King out, extra pressure will fall at the feet of other relievers, including Aroldis Chapman. While things haven’t been smooth for Chapman recently, the Yankees are confident in him.
Chapman has struggled throughout the 2022 season. The seven-time All-Star has a 5.75 ERA, 1.672 WHIP and a troubling 17 walks in 20.1 innings. Chapman has struck out 24 hitters on the year and while a 10.6 K/9 rate isn’t bad in a vacuum, it’s well below the 14.9 K/9 rate that Chapman had coming into the year and would easily be the lowest total of his career. That’s the bad news for Chapman. The good news is that according to general manager Brian Cashman, he’s going to have chances to work out of the funk.
Brian Cashman on Aroldis Chapman: "He's going to continue to get his chances. We've got to get him online. He's certainly got all the ability in the world. We know what he's capable of when he's flying high."
— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) July 24, 2022
“He’s going to continue to get his chances,” Cashman said, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “We’ve got to get him online. He’s certainly got all the ability in the world. We know what he’s capable of when he’s flying high.”
That has to be music to the ears of Chapman, who’s had an abysmal July. His outing on Friday was the eighth of the month for Chapman. In those eight outings, he has a 9.95 ERA and 1.80 WHIP with seven walks in only 6.1 innings pitched. Worse is that things are not trending in the right direction. While the Yankees did defeat the Baltimore Orioles, Chapman allowed three runs while surrendering two hits and a walk in only one-third of an inning.
Chapman undeniably has the stuff to work through his struggles. His fastball isn’t as overpowering as it once was but is still well above average. The key will be finding his control. Walks are criticial mistakes, as they allow runners to reach base for free. Furthermore, when a pitcher is struggling with control, he’s often behind in counts, which forces him to be more aggressive in the strike zone and makes him more vulnerable to loud contact. That’s clearly been an issue for Chapman.
[Bryan Hoch on Twitter]
