With needs to address across all three units of the team — offense, starting rotation, and bullpen — it’s difficult to know just how aggressive the Yankees will be in the two weeks leading up to the MLB Trade Deadline. If history tells us anything, it’s that the one move the front office is guaranteed to make is reinforcement to the relief corps, the team having traded for a reliever at each of the last four seasons. There are few relievers who match the twin traits of ability and availability more
than David Bednar.
2024 Statistics: 36 games, 13 saves, 32 IP, 2.53 ERA (170 ERA+), 2.02 FIP, 2.55 xFIP, 34.6% percent K%, 6.9% percent BB%, 1.1 fWAR
2024 FanGraphs Depth Charts Rest of Season Projections: 26 games, 11 saves, 26 IP, 3.36 ERA, 3.20 FIP, 27.5% K%, 8.3% BB%, 0.6 fWAR
Contract Status: Signed one-year, $5.9 million contract in second of three years of arbitration eligibility; free agent following 2026 season.
The Pirates closer established himself as one of the most underrated relievers in baseball between 2021 and 2023. Among qualified relievers, Bednar placed fifth in fWAR (5.0) despite relatively limited opportunities as the closer for a perennial bottom-dweller as well as sixth in ERA (2.25) and ninth in FIP (2.56). His best season came in 2023, when he led NL relievers with 39 saves and finished second in fWAR (2.3) among that cohort.
But then came a disastrous 2024 campaign which saw Bednar finish the year below replacement level. His ERA skyrocketed to 5.77 and FIP to 4.80 as the strikeouts dried up, the walks and home runs began to pile up. That poor play continued into the start of 2025, culminating in an early April option to Triple-A after giving up four runs on nine hits in three appearances totaling just one inning.
The 30-year-old reliever apparently found a fast fix, because he was called back up two weeks later after allowing just one hit and striking out seven across five scoreless minor-league appearances. He hasn’t looked back since, posting career-bests in strikeout rate (34.6-percent), walk rate (6.9-percent) and home runs per nine (0.56). Since his April 19th call-up, Bednar places among in among the top-six qualified relievers league-wide in fWAR (1.3), FIP (1.44), and strikeout-minus-walk rate (30.6-percent).
This ability to identify and quickly repair faulty elements of his game meshes with the ability of Matt Blake and the Yankees to help their new pitchers make adjustments. It appears the solution has been throw his pitches in the zone more as well as sharpening the command of his curveball, its edge rate jumping from 37.8-percent in 2024 to 48.6-percent this year. Several projections systems question the sustainability of his results given they are not accompanied by an uptick in chase or whiff rates. However, a career-high ground ball rate of 45.3-percent, and elevated BABIP, and a 2.24 SIERA that’s a good deal lower than his ERA all seem to suggest that he is actually pitching better than his results would indicate.
The Yankees are certainly no strangers to shopping for pitchers from the Pirates having acquired Clay Holmes, Jameson Taillon, and JT Brubaker in the last three seasons. Pittsburgh are one of the few guaranteed sellers at this year’s deadline, and the Yankees have already been linked to another of their pitchers in starter Mitch Keller. Bednar would be owed roughly $2.4 million for the final two months of the regular season, so salary should not be a concern for a front office reticent to exceed the fourth and most punishing luxury tax threshold.
In short, Bednar is just the type of high-leverage reliever I would expect the Yankees to target to bolster a bullpen that has struggled in June and July. Although Devin Williams has rebounded admirably from rocky start to life in pinstripes, Luke Weaver has looked a shell of his peak since returning from a left hamstring strain, with a 8.64 ERA and 7.52 FIP in nine subsequent appearances. Fernando Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr. represent the most trusted arms behind the closing pair of Williams and Weaver, but they remain out with injury. The Yankees are said to be seeking a swing-and-miss weapon that can slot right into the final innings of a game and they’d be hard-pressed to find a better option on the market than Bednar.
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