Today is the one-year anniversary of Corey Kluber’s unlikely no-hitter.
While that was a memorable highlight of Kluber’s short tenure with the Yankees, the anniversary affords us the opportunity for some perspective on the whole Corey Kluber Yankees Experience.
In sports, as in life, sometimes (read: ALWAYS) the impact – both positive and negative – of a person to an organization goes well beyond their short-term performance.
Last year, the NY Yankees signed Corey Kluber to a one-year $10m contract. He was recovering from surgery and had clearly lost something. He was up and down – peaking with an unlikely no-hitter one year ago against the Rangers. Then he got hurt and was mediocre upon his return. In the words and wisdom of “Yankees Twitter” he “was old and he kind of sucked and Cashman is an idiot for signing him.”
But one thing Kluber did last year was mentor rookie pitcher, Michael King, a good but not great prospect. Kluber taught King his famous “Kluberball.” He probably imparted a whole lot of veteran wisdom about the art of pitching.
This year, Kluber has moved on and is pitching elsewhere. He is 1-2 with a 4.30 ERA.
Meanwhile, young Michael King has emerged as one of the top relievers in all of MLB, pitching to the tune of a 1.40 ERA with 37 strikeouts across 25 innings, while being deployed as a do everything multi-inning weapon out of the Yankees bullpen.
Now make it 8. What a performance by Michael King. https://t.co/Nx3yN7ixbN
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Kluber’s biggest value-add to the Yankees was not his no-hitter performance, but the unseen, incalculable but massive value he contributed to creating this version of Michael King.
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This post was previously published on linkedin.com.
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