![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/new-york-yankees-pitcher-david-124553994.jpg\")
David Bednar (left) celebrates with catcher Austin Wells (right) after defeating the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\nSAN FRANCISCO \u2014 When the Yankees and their torpedo bats were taking the baseball world by storm to open last season, David Bednar was in Pittsburgh and \u2014 perhaps not surprisingly \u2014 having a much different experience than what was going on in The Bronx.<\/p>\n
The closer, an All-Star in 2023, was somewhat stunningly sent down to the minors after a rough three-game stretch to open the season.<\/p>\n
It followed a poor end to the previous year and left the right-hander to try to reclaim his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had about every thought imaginable,\u201d Bednar said this weekend, as the Yankees once again dominated their first series of the new season, this time with old-fashioned good pitching and timely hitting.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless of how I felt about going down there, that was just the reality I was in,\u201d Bednar said of his demotion. \u201cI had to figure out a way to make it a positive and that\u2019s how I had to frame it: \u2018This is gonna be the best thing for me\u2019 or else I probably wouldn\u2019t be in the spot I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Bednar (left) celebrates with catcher Austin Wells (right) after defeating the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
That spot is at the back of the Yankees bullpen, where Bednar saved two of the three wins over the Giants, who looked virtually helpless throughout the series \u2014 although the same could have been said about the Brewers after the Yankees stomped them for three games in The Bronx to open 2025 and Milwaukee turned out to be formidable.<\/p>\n
For Bednar, after blowing two saves in his first three outings with the Pirates last year, his stint with Triple-A Indianapolis lasted just five effective appearances. He was recalled April 19 and was back as the full-time closer within a month.<\/p>\n
And at the trade deadline, Bednar became the key part of the Yankees bullpen makeover.<\/p>\n
The right-hander was far from his sharpest in Saturday\u2019s win at Oracle Park, but he survived unscathed, as he protected a two-run lead to finish the sweep.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he\u2019s not gonna flinch,\u201d Aaron Boone said afterward.<\/p>\n
Aaron Judge added: \u201cHe always finds a way out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Including the unpleasant predicament he found himself in a year ago.<\/p>\n
Bednar\u2019s effectiveness dropped off significantly following his 2023 All-Star campaign. His walks per nine innings jumped from 2.8 to 4.4 and his strikeouts per nine innings dropped from 12.0 in 2022 to 9.1 in \u201924.<\/p>\n
![\"Yankees](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/detroit-tigers-vs-new-york-121933635.jpg\")
Yankees pitcher David Bednar #53, throwing a warmup pitch before the start of the 4th inning. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
But that didn\u2019t mean Bednar thought he\u2019d be back in the minors.<\/p>\n
He credited the pitching coaches at Triple-A for getting him back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to get more consistent with everything,\u201d said Bednar, whose repertoire includes a four-seam fastball, curveball and splitter. \u201cWhen I\u2019m having success, it\u2019s because I\u2019m throwing my three pitches for strikes. So much of it is about confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
That confidence had returned by the time he got to the Yankees, who were mostly unconcerned about Bednar\u2019s earlier struggles and trip to the minors.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
In his final 39 appearances with Pittsburgh following his return from Triple-A, Bednar allowed less than one base runner per inning and struck out 50 \u2014 against just eight walks \u2014 in 37 innings.<\/p>\n
He proved to be effective with the Yankees down the stretch, as he took over the closer role and pitched well when Devin Williams faltered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely a lot to deal with before I got here, but it was gritty,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cAnd I pride myself on being gritty and getting through tough spots. You\u2019ve got to learn from it and just put your head down and do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now, he gets a chance to close games in important situations \u2014 which wasn\u2019t always the case in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a taste of the playoffs last year and that\u2019s what you grind for,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cI want to be in those big spots and now that I am again, I\u2019m proud of myself and how I dealt with everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 When the Yankees and their torpedo bats were taking the baseball world by storm to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":691693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1890,1266,405,403,2228,5226,5225,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-691692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-david-bednar","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116316321139187047","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}