When the New York Yankees cut homegrown pitchers, it usually doesn’t take long for another team to scoop them up and start tinkering.
This time, it was 25-year-old Yoendrys Gomez, a longtime Yankee system product, who caught the eye of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers wasted no time snatching him off waivers, and if history is any indicator, they’ll work their usual magic and find value somewhere in his arm.
What the Yankees are losing with Gomez
Gomez wasn’t awful this season, sporting a 2.70 ERA over 10 innings.
He ranked in the 79th percentile in hard-hit rate, which is a strong indicator that when hitters made contact, it wasn’t always damaging.
However, the major red flags couldn’t be ignored.
Gomez wasn’t missing bats — his whiff rate was subpar — and he struck out very few batters.
Worse, he was walking 20.5% of the hitters he faced, a number that would make even the most patient pitching coach twitch.
The raw stuff isn’t all bad.
His velocity crept up to around 93 mph this year, and the bones of an effective bullpen arm are still in there somewhere.
But trusting him to keep runners off the bases when games are tight was a risk the Yankees couldn’t afford to take.
Could the Dodgers unlock his potential?
The Dodgers might have a different plan.
Think of Gomez like a rough diamond — not valuable in its current state, but a few good cuts could reveal something special.
Right now, opposing batters are slugging .412 against his four-seam fastball, a pitch he throws 52.1% of the time.
That’s a problem.
However, his slider and curveball have shown flashes of promise, and Los Angeles is known for identifying pitchers who are over-reliant on the fastball and adjusting their arsenals to maximize effectiveness.
It would hardly be shocking if the Dodgers decrease his four-seam usage and pump up his sweeper and curveball work.
If you had to bet on a team to turn an overlooked Yankee farmhand into a functional bullpen weapon, the Dodgers are the safest pick in the league.
Why it stings just a little more for the Yankees
The Yankees invested in Gomez since 2017, developing him from the ground up.
It’s a bit like raising a sapling for years, only to hand it over to another gardener right before it blossoms.
Even though he wasn’t ready to help the big-league team now, there’s a lingering worry that the Dodgers will turn him into the latest “what if” for Yankee fans to grumble about.
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