Baseball is all about depth.
The Yankees have shown their depth in many ways. That is how they are playing .600 ball despite injuries to such stars as Aaron Judge, Miguel Andujar, Luis Severino and Giancarlo Stanton, who has a mysterious left shoulder strain.
For reliever Zack Britton, the depth to his sinker has returned, making all the difference in his world.
In a year of good moves by the Yankees, Britton’s signing to a free-agent contract that could be worth as much as $53 million over four years this past January is turning out to be a huge win. It all comes back to the depth on his sinker.
Sure, the Red Sox messed up by not bringing back Craig Kimbrel, but they really messed up by not signing Britton. This has turned out to be a brilliant signing and over his past four outings, the lefty has not allowed a run across 4 ¹/₃ innings — striking out five and allowing three hits while opposing batters have just a .400 OPS over that span. Overall, he is 1-0 with a 3.12 ERA in 18 games.
In many ways, Britton has saved this Yankees bullpen. Here is the story of what happened to Britton’s sinker, directly from Britton:
“I learned that pitch when I was in short-season A-ball,’’ Britton told The Post on Tuesday night before the Yankees game against the Orioles, his former team, was postponed at a drenched Yankee Stadium. “I gradually started getting more comfortable with it and it was more of a natural pitch for me.’’
Then, Britton tore his right Achilles tendon after the 2017 season. During his comeback, the sinker became inconsistent for the first time ever.
“I think it had something to do with my landing leg and the injury, I couldn’t really pull down, if that makes any sense,’’ Britton said. “Now that I have my strength back, I’m able to uncreate the bad habit I created last year, and now I’m seeing that the action is a lot more consistent.’’
The pitch is breaking down, frustrating hitters.
The Yankees’ analytics department, Britton explained, has a way of measuring the depth of the sinker.
“It’s getting back to where it was moving straight down,’’ said Britton, who was originally acquired in a trade with the Orioles last July. “It’s actually a one-seam fastball. The way the numbers work, the closer to zero you can count on the analytics chart, the better it is. If it’s zero, the ball went straight down, and that is almost impossible.’’
Kind of like the expression, the pitch fell off the table.
“When I was good, I was anywhere from a low-four to a one,’’ Britton said of the sinker, “and that is where I am back to now. When I was struggling, it was more like a six, seven, it was flattening out. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t as good.’’
Britton smiled and said: “I didn’t even know these numbers existed until I got to the Yankees. I’m spewing all these numbers and I don’t even know what the whole deal is. But the closer I get to zero means it’s doing what I want it to do.’’
The bottom line is the bottom is dropping out of his sinker again. That’s all that matters.
“The strength wasn’t all the way there,” pitching coach Larry Rothschild noted, “so it just took a little while.’’
Britton’s success allowed the Yankees to send Chad Green to the minors for a tune-up, and now the bullpen is that much deeper. Britton’s career 1.86 ERA as a reliever is the lowest among all active relievers with a minimum of 100 games in relief.
Manager Aaron Boone marvels at the movement Britton gets on his pitches.
“There are times when we are sitting over on the side and we say, ‘Wow, it looks like a right-handed slider that he just threw,’ ’’ Boone said. “The movement he gets on pitches and he is filling up the strike zone with it, it is a big-time weapon. I feel like he is continuing to get further and further away from the injury and getting back to being the dominant reliever that he can be.’’
Depth makes all the difference.