The New York Yankees acquired right-handed relief pitcher Enyel De Los Santos in a last-minute deal with the San Diego Padres ahead of the Major League Baseball trade deadline.
With more helping in the bullpen, De Los Santos has what the Yankees need — swing-and-miss stuff. He joins Mark Leiter Jr. as the two relievers the Yankees brought in before the deadline.
The 28-year-old has a 4.46 ERA with 48 strikeouts in 40.1 innings this season. His 32.5% whiff rate and 28.2% strikeout rate rank in the 92nd and 85th percentiles, respectively.
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The news was first reported by Jack Curry of YES Network.
De Los Santos works primarily with a two-pitch mix of a four-seam fastball (47.6%) and a slider (46.3%) with the occasional changeup (6.2%). His fastball sits around 95-96 while his slider has generated a 46% whiff rate this season.
The strikeout profile he brings to the bullpen is encouraging, but his other metrics certainly bring some concern.
His 90.5 mph average exit velocity (11th percentile), 13.9% barrel rate (1st percentile) and 48.1% hard-hit rate (3rd percentile) are all marks that bring some concern.
The Yankees needed some swing-and-miss stuff toward the back-end of the bullpen, and they achieved that goal with De Los Santos and Leiter.
Whether it will be enough to make the bullpen bounce back during the final two months of the season remains to be seen.
