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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 31: Brent Headrick #47 of the New York Yankees pitches in the second inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on May 31, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Yankees 28-year-old left-handed relief pitcher Brent Headrick is having a phenomenal 2026 breakout campaign in the Yankees bullpen. Headrick has pitched 38 innings with a 4-1 record, 39 strikeouts, a 1.66 ERA, and 1.24 WHIP. Headrick has been relied on a lot out of the Yankees pen this year, and after showing signs of promise in 2025, appearing in 17 games with a 3.13 ERA, he’s had an elevated role this year as one of the two lefties in the bullpen, the other being Tim Hill.

Headrick Has Pitched Seven Straight Scoreless Outings

Headrick hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last seven appearances. Last night, he pitched 1.2 innings scoreless in Detroit, surrendering just two hits and striking out one batter. In his last 15 appearances, Headrick has pitched to an astonishing 0.68 ERA in 13.1 innings pitched. Headrick doesn’t strike out a ton of batters, but he knows how to generate outs, which is all you can really ask from a bullpen arm. What makes it even more impressive is that Headrick doesn’t throw very hard. His average fastball sits at 93.9 mph, according to Baseball Savant.

He also features a slider, sinker, and split-finger in his repertoire. Headrick has good metrics for barrel percentage, which measures how often a hitter makes ideal contact against a pitcher. The barrel percentage from opposing batters off him is 4.8% this year, which places him in the 84th percentile amongst pitchers, according to Baseball Savant.

Headrick also has promising metrics regarding chase and whiff percentages. He has a 30.7% whiff percentage, placing him in the 87th percentile, according to Baseball Savant. His chase percentage is 32.4%, placing him in the 72nd percentile, per Baseball Savant. This is why the Yankees have relied on Headrick to get big outs out of the bullpen this year, a bullpen that has had several weaknesses, starting with Camilo Doval and the recently demoted right-hander Jake Bird. 

The Yankees are also trying to make up for losing several pieces in last year’s bullpen, including Luke Weaver and Devin Williams to the Mets and Mark Leiter Jr. to the A’s. The Yankees’ bullpen, one could argue, has been their most glaring weakness in 2026, but Headrick has not been one of them. The Yankees originally acquired Headrick off waivers on February 11th, 2025, from the Minnesota Twins.

Headrick Was Originally Claimed Off Waivers By Yankees

Before arriving in New York, Headrick pitched in 15 games for the Twins spanning 2023-24, where he compiled a 5.97 ERA and a -0.2 WAR in 28.2 innings pitched for Minnesota. Compare that to his so far two-year stint in New York, where he’s already reached a 1.9 WAR with an ERA averaging at 2.21, and the Yankees clearly found something in Headrick they liked, and they were correct.

The Yankees will certainly be looking to upgrade the bullpen ahead of this year’s MLB trade deadline as they make a push to end this 17-year championship drought with a title in 2026. But one thing is for certain: Brent Headrick has played a significant role on this team and in their success, despite battling several injuries to core players such as Max Fried, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and, most recently, Trent Grisham.

There’s no doubt that Brent Headrick will continue to play a big role as the Yankees chase title number 28; the only question is, why aren’t more people talking about him?