The Yankees bullpen got deeper and more dangerous Friday, if slightly more injury-prone.
Jonathan Loáisiga was activated off the injured list in time for the Subway Series in The Bronx, making it back 13 months after undergoing UCL surgery and throwing a scoreless sixth inning in a 6-2 win over the Mets.
“A lot of adrenaline. I was missing it,” Loáisiga said through an interpreter. “I wanted to be out there, pitching for the team, pitching for the fans. I was really missing it and excited to be back.”
Loáisiga needed just 12 pitches to record three outs, working around a double with a sinker that sat around 96-98 mph.
“The one thing I didn’t want [was] the velo to tick up too much,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Now that next step of, ‘Boom, you haven’t been out here for a year, you’re in Yankee Stadium, it’s Subway Series,’ so there’s just an energy in the building. I thought he did a really good job of controlling that and letting his stuff work. I thought he was really sharp.”
The Yankees designated lefty reliever Tyler Matzek for assignment to make room for Loáisiga. They had liked what they saw from the veteran Matzek early in spring training, but upon returning from an oblique strain, he was not sharp in seven appearances.
Loáisiga has been largely strong for the Yankees when healthy, posting a 2.98 ERA in 139 games from 2020-2024. The only problem has been staying off the injured list, which has been a struggle. He missed time in 2019 and 2021 with a shoulder strain and in 2022 with shoulder inflammation, had surgery in 2023 to remove a bone spur in his right elbow, then underwent UCL reconstruction with an internal brace in April of last year after making just three appearances.
At his best, though, Loáisiga can be a righty killer with a high-90s sinker, providing more of a power look than the rest of the arms the Yankees currently have in their bullpen — a unit that entered Friday with an ERA of 3.47, good for ninth-best in the majors even with Devin Williams’ inflated numbers.
The Yankees had initially planned to have Loáisiga finish off his rehab assignment by throwing on back-to-back days this weekend at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre but instead brought him back early because of how well he was throwing the ball and bouncing back.
“In the end, we decided he’s pitched a lot. He’s done everything we’ve needed him to do,” Boone said. “He’s had probably more than even a normal spring training as far as buildup, and it’s just been so good. We feel like we should be able to protect him here in this first week, 10 days, two weeks. We can protect him when he pitches, having him down, things like that. So we’ll be mindful of that. “Just felt like what we’ve been looking at the last few months, it’s been really good.”
