One Yankees Reliever Is Running Out of Time To Prove His Worth

On Tuesday, it looked like the Yankees could be on their way to another win when Luis Garcia Jr. homered in the fifth inning. They would turn it over to the bullpen, which has been a strength—at least numbers-wise, it has. Against the Astros, that wasn't the case, though.

Will Warren was relieved by Fernando Cruz, and despite being tasked with holding a 5-3 lead, he gave the game right back to the opposition.

It was Cruz's second rough outing in his last three games. Last week, he was roughed up by Baltimore, allowing a home run against them. He gave the Yankees a solid 1.1 IP against the Blue Jays, but then things came undone again in that Astros game.

Fernando Cruz entered the game with a 4.26 ERA and 4 HR allowed over his last 19 innings.

He just gave up a 2-R blast to Jeremy Peña. #Yankees and #Astros tied at 5.
— Gary Phillips (@GaryHPhillips) August 26, 2026

According to Talkin' Yanks' Katie Sharp, in Cruz's last 16 games, he has allowed 11 runs on five homers. Through his first 45 games, he gave up 12 runs on two homers.

The Yankees bullpen is already low on depth. If Cruz is running out of gas, that could be a big problem, and with the playoffs right around the corner, the Yankees will have to get creative in replacing him in the situations he has been thrown into. If he keeps giving up runs, manager Aaron Boone can't keep throwing him out there.

Cruz cites an ineffective splitter as a reason for his struggles.

"It's just that part of the year," Cruz said, according to MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. "There's ups and downs, like every player has. I've just got to be better. It's going to come. My splitter hasn't been as effective. There's a little bit of mechanical change, grip. We're playing with Major League baseball players. They're really good at it."

Considering how the MLB postseason will begin in just over a month, the clock is ticking for the Yankees to solve their ongoing Cruz-shaped concern.

Yankees should replace Fernando Cruz in high leverage spots

Right now, the Yankees have some reinforcements.

Luis Gil could be called up to get a few innings out of the bullpen. The same goes for Clarke Schmidt. They may even get some help from Ryan Weathers, whose MRI scans came back clean. He will resume throwing in two to four weeks.

Clarke Schmidt pitches. — Incoming reinforcements, like Clarke Schmidt, could help the Yankees replace Fernando Cruz in the bullpen. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

If Cruz keeps struggling, all those guys can push him back on the trust tree. Of course, there was an opportunity to get ahead of something like this during the trade deadline. The Yankees had ample time to add an arm or two. It didn't have to be Mason Miller. Just a middle reliever to eat up a few innings and give a boost to an already great bullpen.

Instead, they opted for the status quo, and here we are as a result.

There's a chance that Cruz is going through a spell of fatigue, and that was the big fear coming out of the deadline. While the Yankee pen has held its own, it has been forced to rely on the same handful of relievers for games that have mostly been close all year.

Whether the Yankees' bullpen could hold up the rest of the way was one question surrounding this team, and on a night where Cruz and even Brent Headrick are giving up home runs, it's a fair assessment to have.

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