The Yankees shored up their bullpen for the upcoming 2021 season by bringing back old friend Justin Wilson.
Source confirms: Free-agent reliever Justin Wilson in agreement with Yankees, pending physical. First: @ByRobertMurray.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 15, 2021
You may remember Wilson with the Yankees back in 2015, and more recently with the crosstown rival Mets. He had a fantastic 2015 season, posting a 3.10 ERA with a 2.69 FIP over 61 innings. The Yankees parlayed his great season by trading him to the Tigers for Luis Cessa and Chad Green. The trade was puzzling at the time, but man did that one work out for the Yankees. Wilson has been good from 2016-2021, but he hasn’t been nearly as good as Green (3.6 vs 5.9 WAR) . Cessa has seemed to come into his own lately as well. Now all three of them will be in the same bullpen.
Terms of the deal are unclear at the moment. This could potentially end the chances of Brett Gardner returning, since any additional spending will probably put the organization very close to the luxury tax threshold. Maybe there is room for one more reclamation project in David Robertson? We’ll see.
