When the Yankees acquired Kyle Farnsworth prior to the 2006 season, he was coming off one stellar 2005 campaign. It started off in Detroit, where he tossed 42.2 innings to a 2.32 ERA. He was then traded to Atlanta, where he proceeded to mow down the Senior Circuit, striking out 32 and walking just seven in 27.1 innings, amassing a 1.98 ERA and a 0.805 WHIP. With the loss of Tom Gordon and a generally meager setup crew, the Yanks needed an arm and Farnsworth was on their list.
The results, as we saw, were terrible. Farnsworth walked too many guys and was seemingly incapable of turning in a 1-2-3 inning in a big spot. Unsurprisingly, we are now seeing more of the same in Kansas City. The Royals, in a moment when reason abandoned them, signed Farnsworth this winter to a two-year, $9 million contract. They later signed Juan Cruz for less than that.
You might look at Farnsworth’s BR page and think, “What’s wrong with that?” After all, he has a 3.43 ERA and a 1.095 WHIP through 21 innings, not to mention a 4.2 K/BB ratio. Those are sterling numbers for sure, ones the Yanks thought they were getting when they signed Farnsworth. However, as in most cases, the numbers don’t show everything.
We turn to the world’s foremost expert on the Kansas City Royals, Joe Posnanski. After marveling at Farnsworth’s career, JoPo turns to his performance. The reason Farnsworth has been so good is that, for the most part, he’s pitched in the lowest of low-leverage situations. That’s for good reason, though. He kind of blew a few games early on, much to everyone’s surprise.
On Opening Day, Farnsworth came into a 2-1 game, Royals leading, and he gave up a three-run homer to Jim Thome. So, as they say, he announced his presence with authority.
A week later, he came into a 2-2 game … gave up a double, a single, balked, another walk and came out of the game with a loss. Four days later, he came into a 5-5 game in the ninth in Texas and promptly gave up the walk-off homer to Michael Young.
Of course, between the Thome homer and the balk game, Farnsworth managed to strike out the side against the Yanks. Go figure. After these three blown games he was inserted into 13 straight situations of the lowest possible leverage, games where the Royals were down 8-3 and 10-0. He did get one decently big spot, with runners on second and third with a 5-2 lead and pitched out of it. Go Kyle! It did fall apart last Thursday, though, when the Royals inserted Farnsworth into a tie game only to have him promptly blow it, recording no outs before the game-winning run crossed.
I do not miss Kyle Farnsworth. Despite the stretch last year where he actually pitched well, he was nothing short of disaster for the Yanks. That shouldn’t have been surprising, though. The Yanks had to have known when they signed him that he wouldn’t live up to the contract. There was no way he could. He was an every-other-year guy, and with the Yanks he couldn’t even pull that. It’s a bit of schadenfreude, of course, to talk about him now. The whole situation just highlights exactly why I’m glad the Yanks will never have him in the bullpen again.
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