Remember Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Red Sox? The Yankees made that puzzling move, pulling the dominant Max Fried for Luke Weaver in the ninth. Notably, Weaver then walked Ceddanne Rafaela, gave up a double to Nick Sogard, and surrendered a two-run single to Masataka Yoshida, flipping the game into a 2–1 Red Sox lead. “I know there are a lot of disappointed people, including myself, but I just have to be better.” The man acknowledged his errors…

But has anything really changed since then? The numbers say no because the Yankees’ bullpen hasn’t improved, and neither has Weaver. Now, as the Blue Jays routed the Yankees in Game 1 of the ALDS, Weaver added yet another stat to his growing list of postseason embarrassments.

“Luke Weaver faced three batters and retired none. Same as in Game 1 of the Red Sox series.” MLB insider Bryan Hoch shared the unwanted record.

Weaver was actually one of the Yankees’ most reliable arms in the 2024 postseason. In 12 appearances, he went 1–0 with a 1.76 ERA, struck out 16, and notched four saves. Even during the regular season, he was lights out, posting a 2.89 ERA over 84 innings with 103 SOs and just 26 walks.

It was a dominant run, the kind of form Aaron Boone is still hoping to see again.

But this October has still been a very different story. Weaver has pitched in two games so far. The first against the Red Sox in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, where he gave up two runs without recording a strikeout. Then came tonight’s outing against the Blue Jays, where he surrendered three more runs and, once again, no strikeouts.

Now, it feels like it’s not just a rough stretch for Weaver, but a reflection of how shaky the Yankees’ bullpen has been since Opening Day.

The sad story of the Yankees’ bullpen continues

“I felt like his command was not as good those final few,” Boone commented after Weaver blew up the game in the Wild Card series. But it might not just be Weaver. Rather, it’s the entire bullpen of the Yankees that’s blowing up games. And it sounds more familiar because the Yankees’ bullpen ERA of 4.37 ranked 23rd out of 30 teams!

The same story got repeated in the just-concluded game against the Blue Jays!

After Weaver failed to record a strikeout while giving up three runs, things didn’t get much better when Fernando Cruz took over. He allowed an earned run of his own and let two of the existing runners score. With that, the Blue Jays stretched their lead to 6–1. Then it was Paul Blackburn who gave up the remaining 4 runs, totaling to a 10-1 score for the Blue Jays.

In total, the Yankees’ bullpen gave up eight runs. Now, that’s a number even their star-studded offense, led by Aaron Judge, couldn’t come close to matching. But at this point, it’s too late to fix the bullpen issues.

Aaron Boone will just have to hope the Yankees can survive this postseason, leaning heavily on their offense and starting rotation.