If this is it for Chad Green as a Yankee, the tenacious reliever deserves some respect for being a truly critical piece of the team’s success.
Green, 31, had Tommy John surgery that ended his 2022 season in May. The procedure came at an absolutely awful time for the right hander, who is now a free agent that lost most of his contract year to injury and likely wouldn’t be able to pitch in 2023 until the tail end of the year at the very soonest.
For the Yankees, who have won more games during Green’s tenure than any American League team outside of Houston, losing the veteran arm could leave a bigger impact than many people realize. While everyone with even a passing interest in the team knows the Yankees have hitched their wagon to relief pitching over the last few seasons, most probably don’t know just how valuable Green was. Since coming over in a trade with Detroit prior to the 2016 season, Green narrowly edges Aroldis Chapman for the distinction of Wins Above Replacement leader in the Yankees’ bullpen.
Green’s raw numbers are equally excellent: 3.17 ERA in 272 appearances (which stretch over 383.2 innings), 1.02 WHIP and .212/.265/.380 opponents’ slash line. He struck out 32.5% of his hitters and only walked 6.3%. He had virtually even splits against righties and lefties, constantly recorded six outs or more and was the poster boy for true middle relief, posting a 2.48 ERA in innings four through six while limiting batters to a .181 average in those frames.
“It was pretty emotional for me honestly,” Yankee skipper Aaron Boone said when Green was placed on the injured list last year. “Chad’s a lot that’s right about our sport. It’s Chad Green. Just in the way he competes, how he takes care of himself. The professional that he is. The respect he carries in that room. The track record of consistent success. So, it’s difficult.”
At this current juncture, unfortunately, it appears likely that Green goes unsigned for the whole year and tries to secure a contract prior to the 2024 season, once he proves to teams that his arm is in tip-top shape again. There is some recent precedent to players signing with a team purely to rehab with them, but the Yankees’ already have a full 40-man roster and without Green and brought in Tommy Kahnle, seemingly a one-for-one Green replacement.
“[Green’s] equipped to handle this and certainly will, I think,” Boone said of the arduous journey from the operating table back to the pitcher’s mound.
The relationship between Green and the Yankees was wonderfully symbiotic. Drafted by Detroit in the 11th round out of the University of Louisville, he was never pegged as an integral part of a major league roster. The Yankees clearly saw something they liked in the rubber-armed righty, though, and once they got their special blend of seasoning on him, the results were delicious. Green went from striking out 20.9% of his assignments in 2015 as a Double-A pitcher in the Tigers’ system to a staggering 40.7% two years later as an MLB sensation.
The final numbers from that 2017 year — Green’s first full one in the bigs — were nothing short of spectacular. While leading the Yankees’ bullpen in innings pitched, he managed a 1.83 ERA, 0.74 WHIP and galactic 248 ERA+, meaning he was 148% more productive than the average reliever. There was also his heroics in the wild card game against the Twins, in which he had to relieve a battered Luis Severino in the first inning. With the Yankees trailing 3-0 before Severino could record his second out of the night, Green came into a messy first inning with two runners in scoring position.
He immediately fanned two hitters in a row. Then he came back for the second and struck out the first two hitters of that inning as well. Green ended up holding the line until the Yankees could get a lead back, ultimately helping them avoid a premature and embarrassing home loss, and later that postseason threw up a perfect 0.00 ERA in three American League Championship Series appearances against the vaunted Astros.
Losing Green (assuming the Yankees are not going to offer a contract to someone who might not play at all this summer) won’t be as crippling a blow, obviously, as losing Aaron Judge would have been. But Green has been in pinstripes longer than his homer-bashing teammate, and his departure would signal the end of a fantastic run. There is a case to be made that Green has been the Yankees’ best relief arm since Mariano Rivera. There has also been a very clear organizational philosophy for the last six or seven years that believes in the power of the mega bullpen. Green has been an elephant-sized part of that.
He was never a fiery ninth inning guy with his own special entrance ceremony. He only has 11 saves to his name, never grabbing more than six in a season. In 2019, Green regularly served as an opener, eschewing his traditional role for something much more unconventional, all serving the purpose of helping his team win. That was Chad Green, who that autumn kicked off the Yankees’ playoff march with four consecutive scoreless outings. He blanked the Twins and Astros for 4.2 innings, striking out four and walking zero, before running out of gas just like several other members of the overworked bullpen.
But no matter if it was April or October, there was always one man to answer the bell. Green would pitch the first inning, he would come in for the third and stick around until the sixth, and he would maintain his stoic mound presence and goofy off-field demeanor the entire time.
If this is it, Green was an undeniably positive part of the Yankees’ mini revival that followed the Jeter and Rivera farewell tours. He was part of the infrastructure that bridged the gap from Joe Girardi to Boone, and all the while, he was sneakily one of the best people in the entire world at his job.
