While some Yankees are over rated or under rated by fans, there are a few that are simply underappreciated despite their solid contributions to the club.
2019 was one crazy year for the Yankees. So many things happened that we may never see again. The Yankees set the record for most injuries in a single season and because of that, they had a lot of players come up and get playing time that they weren’t expected to get. As a result of that, some “regular” players didn’t get as much attention as they should have. Here are three players that had underrated seasons for the Yankees.
Luis Cessa
Lots of people think that Luis Cessa is the white flag of the bullpen next to Jonathan Holder. But in reality, Luis Cessa actually had a good season for the Yankees. In 2019, Cessa pitched to a 2-1 record and owned a 4.11 ERA and struck out 75 batters in 81 innings. The 4.11 ERA was lower than the league average which was 4.51.
Cessa was much better for the Yankees in the second half of the season as his ERA for the second half was 3.66. What really stood out was how Cessa performed in the postseason. While he only pitched four innings in the ALCS, Cessa didn’t allow 1 run, which is great considering it was his first postseason appearance. Overall, Cessa pitched well for the Yankees this season as he has seemed to finally have great control over his nasty slider.
Zack Britton
No one really talks about just how good of a season Zack Britton had in 2019. It happened to be one of the best seasons of his career, but not many really looked into it as the Yankees bullpen was just that good.
In 2019, Britton pitched to a 3-1 record with an amazing 1.91 ERA. Britton also struck out 53 batters in 61 innings and only gave up three home runs. What many people don’t realize is this year Britton started to throw his slider a lot more and that made him just that more dominant. Hitters hit .033 off of Britton’s slider this year.
There was only one single hit on a Britton slider this year. Because of that Britton was, in my opinion, the second-best reliever on the Yankees this season as he had one of his best seasons ever.
Brett Gardner
I see a lot of people not giving Garnder enough credit for what he did in 2019. Coming into 2019, Garnder was not expected to be a starter. It was supposed to be Judge, Hicks, and Stanton, but they all went down at some point with an injury.
Gardner had to step in and again become an everyday player and proceeded to have one of the best offensive seasons of his career. In 2019, Gardner slashed .251/.325/.503 while hitting a career-high 28 home runs and driving in a career-high 74 runs. Again, Gardner stepped up when we needed him.