David

Bednar

The Marlins scored two runs in the eighth to tie the game before the Yankees scored three in the bottom of the inning to rebuild a three-run cushion. It’s a good thing they did because Bednar had a rough inning. He allowed an infield single to start the inning and then later issued a walk and gave up an RBI single. He gave up yet another single, but it was sandwiched between two strikeouts, including one of Griffin Conine to end the game. It’s Bednar’s fourth save of the season, and while his 4.15 ERA leaves a little to be desired, he should likely be one of the better closers in fantasy this season.

This was a hairy save for Bednar. He came on in the eighth inning to try and clean up Camilo Doval’s mess and allowed two of those inherited runners to score. Then, the Mariners put up another run in the ninth and got the tying run to the plate before Bednar finally nailed it down. His velocity was down a tick across the board too, so keep an eye on that next time he’s out there.

Bednar’s five fastballs tonight averaged 96.3 mph, an exact match for where he was last year. He was at 94.6 mph during the spring, but he was already back up to 95.6 mph last night. He’s probably going to be a top-10 fantasy closer if he remains healthy.

Bednar walked Matt Chapman with two outs in the 3-0 game but then retired Rafael Devers to end things. Bednar’s velocity was down all spring, including in the WBC, but he was up to 96.3 mph on average with his fastball tonight. That’s back to within 0.7 mph of last year. He was at 94.6 mph in his five Grapefruit League appearances.

It appeared to be a scripted move, as the Yankees had a number of relievers they wanted to use in their Grapefruit finale. However, it might be notable that Bednar’s hardest of his five fastballs came in at 94.4 mph today. His velocity has been down all spring, which isn’t necessarily a major concern, but it’d be nice if he were headed in the other direction at this point. Today’s average of 94.0 mph with his fastball was down a bit from his previous spring average of 94.8 mph and a full three mph off his 2025 average of 97.0 mph. Still, Bednar has pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings in Yankees camp, and he turned in four scoreless frames with eight strikeouts for Team USA in the WBC.

There was speculation that Miller would be unavailable after throwing 22 pitches during Sunday’s save appearance against the Dominican Republic. With fellow high-leverage arm David Bednar shut down for workload reasons, Miller is the overwhelming favorite to get the ball to close out the international showcase. Garrett Whitlock is the other late-inning arm with some workload questions but all indications are he’s good to go. The electrifying 27-year-old Padres stopper will be pitching for the third time in the last five days, if he makes an appearance on Tuesday night at loanDepot park. He’s the top closer off the board in all fantasy drafts this spring.

Bednar is still easing into his things, and both his fastball and curve were down about three mph from last year. It didn’t stop him from getting three straight groundouts today.

Bednar is receiving a $3.1 million raise in his last year before free agency. He finished last year as the Yankees’ closer after replacing Devin Williams, and it seems obvious at this point that he’ll keep the job going into 2026. He had a 2.30 ERA and an 86/19 K/BB in 62 2/3 innings for the Pirates and Yankees last season.

Mason Miller and David Bednar are also being added to the bullpen. Skubal will join Paul Skenes in the Team USA rotation, which will also have Joe Ryan, Nolan McLean, Clay Holmes and Matthew Boyd available as starting options. Some announced players might drop out in March, but so far, this definitely looks like the best roster Team USA has managed to assemble for a WBC.

Williams will keep his options open, but he might prefer to go a team where he’d know he’s the closer and where one bad week wouldn’t change that. That’s not a knock on the Yankees, but with David Bednar on the roster as an alternative, any sort of misstep would lead to calls for a change.