The New York Yankees are taking a strength and making it even stronger.

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During the last few days the Yankees bullpen got a huge upgrade by acquiring the Aroldis Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds. But what good will stockpiling hard throwers do for them when the team struggled so much with solid starting pitching. What it looks like is they dont care about that. They got far enough with Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances holding down tight ball games that now they feel they need only 5 innings from their starters. Who gave them such an idea?

In years past, the Kansas City Royals have built hard throwing bullpens which have made them perennial winners in the American League. Before that, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series with a lock down back end. So could the Yankees be the next one?

In the last few years, starting rotations have become harder and harder to keep together. Last year the Washington Nationals built what seemed to be an unstoppable rotation with Max Scherzer, Steven Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman, and Gio Gonzalez only to watch one run games disappear in the late innings. The Nationals have ignored starters this offseason and gone after hard throwing relievers as well.

What the Yankees want to get back to the top of the AL East after spending the last few years watching the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays take their claim to the being the best in Major League Baseball. Brian Cashman gets to play with house money with Chapman. He had a chance to make his team very dangerous even if Chapman misses time due to the abuse allegations against him. The person you have to feel for is Joe Girardi. He now has to find the way to line up three very powerful choices to close games for him. How do you not envy his problem though. Every manager in MLB would want to have three closers that can make batters miss. The Yankees now own the three best strikeout per nine inning relievers in MLB last season.

So now we will see if the gamble pays off and maybe this is a sign of the new MLB: a relievers game.

Featured Image courtesy of The Enquirer/Jeff Swinger