Erik Boland: Yankees reliever Camilo Doval emerging as someone Aaron Boone can trust
Yankees relief pitcher Camilo Doval works against the Giants, his former team, during the ninth inning of a baseball game in San Francisco on Wednesday. Credit: AP/Jeff Chiu
SAN FRANCISCO — The Yankees departed spring training feeling as good, top to bottom, about their team entering a season as they had in probably more than a decade.
It had to do with what they felt was a deep, diverse lineup, complemented by a deep bench, with the best starting pitching depth they’ve had in years — even with Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon and Clarke Schmidt starting the season on the injured list.
The bullpen?
That was the one area that produced some questions.
As the Yankees wrapped up the exhibition season last week, it was something Aaron Boone mentioned.
“Guys need to establish roles and establish themselves in the bullpen, especially early on,” Boone said. “There's some competition for some spots for guys to elevate themselves or grab some roles.”
Before Saturday night’s game against the Giants, with his Yankees looking for a three-game sweep to start the year, Boone said that didn’t necessarily mean “set” roles beyond David Bednar, who is entrenched as the closer.
“[Depending on the opponent’s lineup], it could be Timmy Hill pitching in the eighth inning. We’ll see how it shakes out,” Boone said. “Because a lot of times the biggest moment is the sixth or seventh inning, you’re going to go through the heart of the order or something.
“Pitching in leverage, pitching in higher leverage. Look, everyone at some point, just based on the schedule and availability, is going to have to be thrust into a tough spot or a leverage spot. That’s part of it. Hopefully you have a couple of guys down there that step up or go to another level that allows them to be counted out, reliable people in some of the bigger spots in the game.”
At last year’s trade deadline, the Yankees felt they had acquired one such arm in righthander Camilo Doval, brought over from the Giants for four prospects.
It did not work out. Doval, who had a 3.29 ERA in five mostly standout seasons with the Giants, including an All-Star bid in 2023, flopped from the start. He never fully entered Boone’s circle of trust in high-leverage situations, among the biggest reasons the Yankees, down the stretch and into the playoffs, had such a rickety bullpen.
Doval posted a 4.82 ERA in 22 appearances with the Yankees. Though he performed better in the last several weeks of the regular season and was strong in the postseason, he still wasn’t viewed as a reliable late-inning arm.
In 2026, however, Doval, 28, has resembled the pitcher he was with the Giants, giving the Yankees reason to think they might just have one more dependable late-inning arm.
He flashed high-end stuff throughout spring training, and his first two outings of the regular season have been encouraging.
Doval threw a scoreless ninth inning in Wednesday’s season-opening 7-0 victory and struck out the side in the eighth inning of Friday's 3-0 victory.
“Dominant," Boone said. "The sinker from the side, looked like a split, and I thought really good pace and tempo to him filling up the strike zone. That was a dominant 1-2-3 inning of what he can be and what he looks like when he’s rolling.”
It looked familiar to third baseman Ryan McMahon, who saw plenty of Doval from the opposing dugout during nine years with the Rockies before being dealt to the Yankees at the 2025 trade deadline.
“He’s thrown some incredible pitches,” McMahon said before Saturday’s game. “Like, if you look at them metrically, the way they’re moving, it’s similar, I feel like, to how they moved when he was having all that success. So it’s just getting him back, getting him confident in his stuff again and just chucking it up there. Because he can throw you three balls down the middle and it’s going to be really hard to square up when he’s got his best stuff.”
Doval, who posted a 2.93 ERA with 39 saves and struck out 87 in 67 2/3 innings in his All-Star 2023 season, said it’s “definitely a goal” to be “close to that version of myself from 2023.”
Through his interpreter, Doval added: “Or even better.”
McMahon, 0-for-6 with two strikeouts in his career against Doval, doesn’t doubt that’s possible, and not just because of Doval’s renowned sinker. At his best, the cutter and slider are pretty good, too.
“It’s not fun. It’s not fun. Honestly, all of his pitches aren’t fun,” McMahon said. “When he’s on, he really just has to be on with like one or two of them. But if he has all three of them going, he’s damn near unhittable.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
