PHILADELPHIA — The Yankees have found some relief that fills two needs.
The club acquired righty reliever Mark Leiter Jr. from the Cubs on Tuesday, sending infield prospect Ben Cowles and relief prospect Jack Neely back to Chicago.
Leiter — the son of former Yankee Mark Leiter Sr. and nephew of former Yankee and Met Al Leiter — had a 4.21 ERA across 39 games and 36 ⅓ innings with 53 strikeouts this season.
His 36.7 percent whiff rate and 34.9 percent strikeout rate will become tops in a Yankees bullpen that has been lacking swing-and-miss this season.
Entering Tuesday, Leiter’s strikeout rate ranked 11th among all major league pitchers with at least 100 plate appearances against this season.
The Yankees’ bullpen came into Tuesday with a 23 percent strikeout rate, which ranked 17th in the majors.
Leiter has also excelled against left-handed hitters – another area of need – holding them to a .213 average and .657 OPS in his career.
A 33-year-old native of Toms River, N.J., Leiter is under club control through 2026.
He missed two weeks on the injured list recently with a forearm strain – five years after undergoing Tommy John surgery – but came back July 9 and has not allowed a base runner since, tossing 7 ⅔ perfect innings with 14 strikeouts.
Neely, 24, was a hard-throwing arm that opened some eyes this season at Double-A and Triple-A, with some thinking he could make it to The Bronx this season. Instead he was part of the price – along with Cowles, a 24-year-old at Double-A – to land a more experienced reliever.
Both Neely and Cowles were going to have to be added to the 40-man roster this offseason to be protected from the Rule 5 draft, so the Yankees avoided some roster crunch with the trade.
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