The idea that a system’s function is its purpose has been on my mind a lot lately. Our lives are full of inertia; events occur because they are meant to. In the real world, that could be upsetting, disgusting, and annoying, but thankfully, that’s not what we’re talking about today. We are discussing baseball.
The series-clinching victory over the Diamondbacks on Wednesday ended a bit messy, but it also served as something of a coming-out party for Ian Hamilton, who in my opinion may be the best reliever in baseball.
In his 2.2 innings of scoreless relief on Wednesday, Hamilton held the D-Backs off the board and struck out four of them. The game ended in a draw. In 2024, he has not given up a run, struck out 43.8% of the batters he has faced, given up no free passes, and only one batter has ever reached base off of him.
All this from a player who, prior to the Yankees signing him to a minor league contract before the 2018 season, had spent three years bouncing between five different teams. Ian Hamilton ought not to be this talented, yet still…
What a system performs is what its purpose is. That has drawbacks for the Yankees because, in spite of declarations to the contrary, they are perfectly happy to be competitive and in the running for the playoffs each year, but they never want to take on enough risk to be the unexpected favorite.
The Yankees’ ability to consistently transform unknown players into elite relievers—”oh my God did you see that pitch” caliber—is the benefit of POSIWID. Since abandoning his ambitions to be a starter in 2020, Jonathan Loáisiga has a 2.89 ERA. Since joining the Yankees in the middle of 2021, Clay Holmes has established himself as one of the top 15 relievers in MLB. Sample sizes are always a concern, but early on, former NRI Nick Burdi appears to be another gem in the rough. Naturally, Michael King went from being an unsung hero in the Marlins deal to being a key player in bringing in Juan freakin’ Soto.
With just one member of the much-honored Baby Bombers remaining on the roster and the Yankees unable to develop in-house starters, this never-stop moving relieving arm machine is possibly the best thing the team does. It has also shown to be among the team’s best financial choices:
The Yankees are making more payroll space available for other, more difficult-to-produce position groups each season. Well, that’s a separate discussion entirely, but when you’re spending $30 million a year on your setup man and closer, it gets really tough to hang onto Aaron Judge or even try to hang onto Juan Soto.
By the way, Ian Hamilton’s salary is under a million dollars.
We’ll never know the identities of many of these individuals once spring training begins because of this change from purchasing to making, but I think the Yankees will generate more excellent bullpen pitchers in the future than any other team. A strange little exchange with the clubs sending money to a Midwest squad will go place, and I plan to write a story akin to this one a year later.
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I must, for the record, differ from my colleague Esteban. Ian Hamilton is most useful where he is at the moment. He’s more of a “hold the line” kind of guy than a firefighter. Ian Hamilton is probably the best option in the bullpen right now if you need to keep the score where it is and you need six outs.
