The Irony of the Alfredo Aceves Save
By Mike Silva ~ June 9th, 2011. Filed under: Mike Silva, New York Yankees.
The real story for the Red Sox last night was not David Ortiz’s profanity laced postgame tirade, but the 3 plus innings of work provided by Alfredo Aceves to earn the save. Just when it appeared the Yankees were on the verge of a huge comeback, “Ace” came in and shut the door. It was a blueprint the Yankees used quite a few times during his tenure.
Aceves was a key contributor to the 2009 championship team out of the bullpen. He hurt his back, missed most of 2010, and broke his collarbone after the season. The Yankees elected to non-tender him this offseason, but didn’t even bother bring him back on a lesser salary. Apparently, they had no interest, believing he wouldn’t hold up over the course of the season. That may turn out to be true, but considering he is only making $650k this year it wouldn’t have been a big loss financially.
Don’t forget, the Yankees have $15 million dollars of bullpen arms (Feliciano, Chamberlain, Soriano) on the shelf. They just claimed former prospect Jeff Marquez off waivers, recalled Amauri Sanit, and saw Lance Pendleton get torched in the ninth inning. I don’t believe any is of the quality of Aceves. It was convenient he used yesterday’s stage to remind Brian Cashman of that fact.
June 9th, 2011 at 7:40 pm
I loved Ace, was sorry to see him go. But the Yanks gave him every opportunity to gt his back healthy, and every time he relapsed. I can’t fault them for the decision, and it remains to be seen if Ace can keep it up. I will say this, I was shocked that Cash didn’t bother to match the Red Sox offer of a few hundred grand. There were reports he never made an offer at all.