Law: Forget Todd Frazier, big trade boosts Yankees bullpen
From the above link:
The deal does more to bolster the Yankees' bullpen, which has lately seen some shakier performances from
Aroldis Chapman and
Dellin Betances. It represents a homecoming for Robertson, who's been throwing more strikes and getting more swings and misses this year after a down year in 2016, and for Kahnle, whose 42.6 percent strikeout rate is fourth-best in the majors this year.
Kahnle is throwing harder this year than he ever has before, and he's missing bats in the zone more than most pitchers do, so while nothing in his history pointed to this, it does appear that at least some of the improvement in his results is because of improved stuff. The Yankees also add by subtracting
Tyler Clippard to their pen, and are better equipped for the regular season and October with this new-look relief corps that should shorten a lot of games to six innings.
The return for the White Sox revolves largely around whether Rutherford can recapture the promise he showed last spring and summer, during which he was the 19th overall pick in the 2016 draft. Rutherford turned 19 in May of his senior year of high school, so he's played in the Sally League this year at age 20, about right for low-A, without producing: .281/.342/.391, making a lot of contact but not doing much with it, barely hitting lefties at all.
I saw him on Monday when Lakewood no-hit Rutherford's former team, Charleston. Rutherford's swing is still simple and his approach quiet, although he can open up his front hip too early, which may be why he's so vulnerable to left-handed pitching. There's no mechanical reason to explain the power outage. He's played mostly center field this year for the Riverdogs but will play a corner in the majors, which means he has to show more power going forward.
Lefty Clarkin is another former first-round pick, although he's also quite different from the player the Yankees thought they were getting when they took him one spot behind
Aaron Judge in the 2013 draft.
Clarkin had a potential knockout curveball in high school, but injuries have changed his profile and he's now more of a fastball/changeup guy and has shown a reverse platoon split in each of the two seasons since he missed all of 2015 with an elbow injury (that never required surgery). He throws everything for strikes but lacks a true out pitch. The White Sox have had a lot of success teaching pitchers to throw cutters or improving sliders --
Chris Sale being the most obvious example -- and perhaps they can find a third pitch for Clarkin that will make him more effective against left-handed hitters. If he can just get to a solid-average breaking ball, he'd project as at least a fourth starter. Without it, he's more of a fifth/sixth guy.
The White Sox also get unheralded Colombian outfielder Tito Polo, who, aside from his delightful name, can run and has continued to hit at two levels this year at age 22, and should at least end up a fourth outfielder. They also clear Robertson's $13 million salary for 2018, money that a rebuilding club can put to much better use than the back end of its bullpen. It's still a high-risk deal for the White Sox, though, given the subpar performances this year of the two main prospects coming back from the Yankees.
