Seventeen games into the 2026 MLB season, the New York Yankees are sitting at 9-7 — a respectable enough record that places them second in the AL East — but the way they have assembled those wins and losses is beginning to raise some uncomfortable early-season questions.
The rotation has flashed genuine quality. Aaron Judge is doing Aaron Judge things. The defence has been largely reliable.
Yet every time the bullpen door swings open at Yankee Stadium, a significant portion of the Bronx holds its breath. Early evidence suggests that anxiety is justified.
The Yankees’ Bullpen Struggles in 2026: Who Is Letting New York Down?
The names David Bednar and Fernando Cruz represent something of an island of reliability in what has otherwise been a rocky start for the Yankees’ relief corps.
Outside of those two, manager Aaron Boone has been left with precious few arms he can deploy with genuine confidence in high-leverage situations.
Camilo Doval, acquired at last year’s trade deadline to shore up exactly this kind of issue, has already provided a stark reminder of why the Yankees remain a work in progress behind their closer.
In Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Angels — a game the Yankees ultimately lost — Doval entered with two outs, a runner on third, and the score tied 8-8 in the seventh inning.
He escaped the immediate jam but gave up a lead-off single in the following frame, and two batters later, Mike Trout punished him with a monstrous 445-foot, two-run homer to give the Angels the lead for good.
It was the kind of moment that crystallises a problem: when the game is on the line and Bednar is unavailable, the Yankees’ options thin out rapidly.
On Tuesday, the team made a roster move that underlined their current bullpen instability.
De Los Santos — called up specifically for the Angels series — was optioned back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after surrendering one earned run on three hits and two walks over two innings.
He may well return later this season, but his brief appearance only confirmed the lack of a clear, trustworthy option emerging from the lower tiers of the bullpen.
How the Yankees’ Starting Rotation Has Become a Hidden Concern
The pressure on the bullpen is compounded by the rotation’s own injury situation.
When the starting pitching cannot consistently pitch deep into games, the bridge between starter and Bednar becomes increasingly crowded and increasingly fragile.
The Yankees’ team ERA sits at a promising 2.99 — third best in the American League — but that number is somewhat flattering given the games in which early exits have handed the pen awkward situations.
Boone has spoken candidly about the limited trust he has in his relief corps beyond the closer and Cruz, and those comments coming this early in the season are a mild alarm bell for a team with genuine World Series aspirations.
Can Aaron Judge and the Yankees Offense Compensate for Bullpen Woes?
The optimistic view — and there are real reasons to be optimistic — centres on the lineup’s capacity to simply out-score the opposition and reduce the scenarios in which the bullpen is placed in danger.
The Yankees led all of MLB with 274 home runs in 2025, and there is no reason to believe their power-hitting identity has diminished.
Judge is already demonstrating the kind of form that earned him back-to-back MVP awards, and the supporting cast around him has genuine depth.
Cody Bellinger is settling into his second year in pinstripes, while Jazz Chisholm brings the kind of electric at-bat quality that opponents can never fully plan for.
The lineup’s one early concern is a collective batting average of just .214 — 27th in MLB — which suggests the power is not yet translating consistently into runs on the board.
That needs to improve. A team that relies exclusively on the home run to score will find itself in too many close, late-inning situations where the bullpen’s limitations become decisive.
What the Yankees Must Do to Fix Their Relief Corps Before the Trade Deadline
The trade deadline in late July feels a long way away, but given the Yankees’ bullpen track record of needing reinforcements — they acquired both Bednar and Doval at last year’s deadline, after all — the front office will almost certainly be monitoring the relief market throughout the spring.
Jake Bird has also struggled to provide consistency, and the depth behind Cruz and Bednar simply has not been tested and found reliable enough to handle a playoff run in its current form.
In the short term, the hope is that some combination of internal improvement and health from the starting rotation reduces the innings burden on a vulnerable middle relief unit.
In the medium term, the Yankees will need to identify at least one or two trustworthy set-up arms — whether through the minor league system or via a trade — before October comes around.
New York has the offensive firepower and the star power to go deep in October.
Whether their bullpen can hold up under the pressure of a playoff race is the defining question of the 2026 Yankees season, and it is one that has already emerged with more urgency than the organisation would have hoped after just 17 games.
