Yankees Acquire Former All-Star Closer Zach Britton From Baltimore Orioles

The New York Yankees have bolstered what it already the best bullpen in baseball by acquiring closer Zach Britton from the Baltimore Orioles. Baltimore in turn will receive a trio of pitching prospects from the Yankees as they try to rebuild their organization.

An all-star in 2015 and 2016, the latter of which saw him lead the Majors in saves, Britton will provide a strong left-handed arm to help the Yankees late in games. So far this season, accumulated a solid 3.45 ERA and 13 strikeouts over 15.2 innings pitched. He only has 4 saves this year, but that can mostly be chalked up to Baltimore having a league-worst 29-73 record, which has afforded him very few save opportunities.

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Britton will almost definitely make a transition from closer to middle reliever, as Aroldis Chapman has been lights out in the 9th inning for most of this season. In joining Chapman, Dellin Betances, David Robertson, and Chad Greene, Britton becomes a welcome lefty to enter a bullpen with a league-best 2.75 ERA. However, with their bullpen already that elite without Britton, one can’t help but wonder why the Yankees haven’t done much on the trade market in order to address their biggest need, that being starting pitching.

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Regardless, Britton only bolsters New York’s shot at winning a World Series this season, for which they were already among league favorites. However, the same most certainly cannot be said of the Orioles, who are in clear rebuild-mode now that their season is all but lost. Along with Britton, Baltimore traded away star shortstop Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a crop of young prospects. They were likely to lose Machado in free agency after the season’s end, so the move made plenty of sense, but now they are without a true star and look like it will be quite a while before they are threats in the American League again.