The Yankees are making changes to their coaching staff. Bullpen coach Mike Harkey as well as first base and infield coach Travis Chapman will not be returning to the club in 2026, per Andy Martino of SNY.
Harkey, 58, has served two separate stints as the team’s bullpen coach. His first stint was from 2008-13, which included the World Series winning 2009 season. After spending 2014-15 as the pitching coach for the Diamondbacks, he returned as the Yankees’ bullpen coach in 2016 and had been in that role ever since, until today’s news. The club has generally churned out a strong relief corps in those ten seasons. Since the start of 2016, Yankees relievers have posted a 3.63 ERA which ranks third-best among all major league teams. They are tied for third-best with a 16.7% K-BB rate in that time and have been worth a combined 56.3 fWAR, which is second only to the Dodgers.
This year, however, the Bronx bullpen did not perform up to its usual standards. Yankees relievers ranked 23rd in the league with a 4.37 ERA. While they struck out plenty of hitters, tying the Guardians bullpen for fifth-best with a 24.9% strikeout rate, they also walked 9.7% of hitters, which was ninth-worst. Key offseason acquisition Devin Williams posted a 4.79 ERA in 62 innings, although his 3.07 xERA and 2.68 FIP are much more favorable. Luke Weaver also underperformed relative to 2024, and while David Bednar proved invaluable following his acquisition at the trade deadline, fellow relievers Camilo Doval and Jake Bird were not as successful, with Bird almost immediately being optioned to the minors.
Obviously, responsibility for the bullpen’s performance is not Harkey’s alone. Underperformance in 2025 aside, Harkey has been a steady presence on the team’s staff for the past decade and now departs the organization with 19 years of coaching experience on his resume.
Chapman, 47, began his coaching career in New York’s farm system before being promoted to the major league staff following the 2021 season. Since the start of 2022, the club’s defense on the left side of the infield has generally been solid. With solid performances at the hot corner from the likes of DJ LeMahieu, Josh Donaldson, Oswaldo Cabrera, and now Ryan McMahon, Yankees third basemen have combined for 35 Defensive Runs Saved and 33 Outs Above Average in that time. Shortstop has also been a defensive strength, with Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Anthony Volpe leading the team to a combined 35 DRS (4th in the majors) and 8 OAA (14th) at that spot. First and second base have been more serviceable than excellent, being valued at 0 DRS and -6 DRS respectively.
This year, the infield defense was not quite as strong. Jazz Chisholm Jr. was worth 8 OAA at second base, but he was also forced to spend time at third base in the first half and was a negative there, which partly necessitated the trade for McMahon. Notably, Anthony Volpe regressed mightily at shortstop, as he was valued at -7 OAA after being lauded for his defense from 2023-24. As with Harkey, Chapman is not entirely to blame for the infield’s regression. Nonetheless, it appears the Yankees are moving on in hopes of improving their infield defense in 2026.
Other coaching changes are on the horizon as well. Per Martino, hitting coordinator Jake Hirst is being promoted to the major league staff. Assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler will not return in that role, although the team is discussing other potential roles with him. Meanwhile, hitting coach James Rowson is reportedly set to interview for the Twins’ managerial vacancy. In any case, the Yankees will look to have a capable staff in place under manager Aaron Boone in hopes of making a deeper postseason run in 2026 following their ALDS loss to the Blue Jays.
This’ll fix things…
Ha!
Ron Washington for infield coach.
Yes!! Once again a team who either leads the league in errors or is close to it ,as well as a few other dismal stats fires a few coaches that have little to no impact on their failures. I mean other than the one of the worst ERA amongst bullpens in the league. That falls mostly on the pitchers themselves and not so much as the guy who answers the phone to relay the message for the righty or lefty.
Yes, I’m being flippant.
Yankees need Ron Washington badly…
To teach first base which Pitt says is not hard tell him Wash
What exactly does a bullpen coach do?
He monitors the relievers as they warm up in the pen before coming into a game. He will also answer the phone. Depending on the team, they are also the taskmaster to make sure the bullpen guys (who can be kind of strange anyway, especially lefties) don’t screw around too much or fall asleep as they await a chance to pitch late in a game.
Obviously the Yankees failure was all because of these 2 guys. Curse them! Flog them! Keelhaul them! Sorry got carried away. I’d say something else but it wouldn’t pass the moral police here.
A lot actually including making game plans and supervising warm-ups. Except the primary focus is with relievers before, during, and after games. They also work with the entire pitching staff.
Apparently in the Yankees organization they fall on their swords. Other than that ISOB summed it up.
Yankees made a total of 67 infield errors. Volpe had 19. The bullpen was meh. Can’t fire the players. I’m in support of making these changes.
I’m with you.. Ppl who say these coaches have little to noting to do with how the players perform, while likely true to a large extent, doesn’t mean these coaches did their respective jobs well. Maybe the org is wrong about that. But everybody gets evaluated.
and those who say the coaches are scapegoated, that really only holds water if there is no actual player changes. As an example, I bet the BP will look quite a bit different next year.
I get what you are saying however harkey did t just forget how to run a bullpen overnight.. the guy was there for 16 years and has had very good bullpen arms to work with. Yes the bullpen wasn’t as good or was it? Clay Holmes blew a ton of saves but Luke weaver was lights out. Devin williams 1st year in NY not everyone can play in NY. Harkey got what he could out of the pen. It shouldn’t fall on him. Blame Cashman for rolling out guy’s that are relied upon that can’t stay healthy i.e. loogy. Cashman put together a team on paper but could have done better with pen and bench. (3 lefty catchers) 7th inning reliever, 4th OF, 3b
100%. BP wasn’t good this year overall and IF defense could have been better. These moves make sense.
YBC Harkey had been there a while and the bullpen only sucked this year. I don’t see him as the problem, only a scapegoat.
@Joe says
That’s valid. I’m gonna miss seeing Harkey in the bullpen. It’s going to be weird.
YBC as Clipper alluded to they might asked him to change his way of doing things and it didn’t work out so well. Either way things won’t improve until Cashman is gone.
What scares me to death is the fact the Yankees want to get more new-school with BP coaching. We saw how that worked with both roster and lineup contraction, and I’m afraid it may be the same with BP management now. The new school mentality has ensured repeated beatings of mid-to-low pitching and/or teams, while being rendered impotent against good pitching.
Any time Yankees go new school, it seems to make things worse, imho.
The difference in performance for this team is stark between good pitching vs mediocre-to-bad seems even more than what should be expected, but you really need to explain what this “new school” approach has to do with that.
Jan: That’s exactly the problem… we don’t know what they mean when they say, “new school” except that it will be more analytically based. That has hurt the Ya Kees over and over and over, specifically with lineup construction and roster construction. It is also why they went with Boone over Girardi (new school coaching and management) and we see how that has worked out.
So rounding it out he practically accounted for 30% of all Yankees errors this season. I wonder if the SS position is higher around the league than any other position or if it’s just him? I don’t want to look it up as it might make me sadder than I already am.
A higher percentage of groundballs are hit to the SS because there are more righty than lefty hitters in the league.
Sad. The scapegoats.
The problem with the coaching staff is at the top of the list. He has a job forever, though.
Honestly, I’d like to see one of the chatbots manage an MLB team for a year. Could test it out on the Rockies or Nationals, you know, one of those teams that no one cares about.
And how many of the analytical staff were let go?
I’d imagine there wull be changes there too but it won’t make headlines. The Yankees also have some third-party outoutsourcing with their data-crunching.
I remember when Harkey was with the Angels in 1995 in a start against the Red Sox he decided to plunk Mike MacFarlane with a pitch, escalating tensions that had carried over from their series at Fenway with Tony Phillips being the key instigator. Roger Clemens was on the mound for the Sox and Phillips led off the next inning, Phillips refused to get into the batters box til the umpire warned Clemens not to throw at him. The warning never came and Roger threw the first pitch behind his ear before Phillips eventually grounded out. Two batters later Clemens hit Tim Salmon and of course then came the warnings. Chili Davis would homer the next at bat to put the Angels within a run. Next inning after a leadoff single by Lee Tinsley Harkey would retire the next two hitters and then Jose Canseco would crush a two run bomb to seal the win for the Sox with Harkey mouthing to himself the entire time Canseco jogged around the bases. Good times…
And yet still Cashman remains. How long now since a world championship???
How about parting ways with Aaron Boone?
That too Hex but he is just Cashman’s puppet.
The changes were inevitable, but let’s face it. It was Cashman who traded Caleb Durbin (2.9 BWAR) for….Devin Williams and Cashman who emptied out the farm at trading deadline for a host of relievers who, as a group, were mediocre at best. Accountability should include leadership
I won’t blame Cash for that one. Based on his track record, nobody could’ve predicted Williams would turn into a pumpkin.
Just keep doing the same things every year that have not worked for years like Cashman and Boone
The rest of MLB thanks you!
A change in the hitting philosophy would be fantastic. Change the culture of boom or bust.
If Chapman were a dog he’d be named Rex
“Former NBA player Rex Chapman enters the chat”…
FIRE Boone !
Cashman has identified his scapegoats.