Yankees appear to be at bullpen disadvantage versus Guardians

Yankees manager Aaron Boone professed great faith in who’s now left in the pen for the Yankees. Which only wraps up for Boone our coveted award for Most Positive Person of the Year.

Boone is either delirious or knows something we don’t know.

Joining Chad Green, Michael King, Ron Marinaccio and Zack Britton on the injured list Tuesday was Scott Effross, who it was announced will undergo Tommy John surgery. Of course, there was also Aroldis Chapman who’s on the A-List (no, that isn’t to denote his great fame, but stands for the AWOL List), as the best-paid reliever in the AL. He was a no-show for a mandatory workout and justifiably omitted from the Yankees’ active roster for the ALDS which began Tuesday against the Guardians.

What that leaves in the pen for the Yankees objectively ranks somewhere between an interesting puzzle and a complete mess depending on one’s perspective. Clay Holmes, fresh off the IL himself, presumably gets some save chances if he’s as healthy as they hope. But beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess how Boone utilizes this disjointed group.

With six key members of the Yankees bullpen corps either out due to injury (Green, King, Marinaccio, Britton and Effross) or insubordination (you know who), Boone is going to have several difficult choices, and he’s going to have to make it all work if the Yankees are to win their first World Series title in 13 seasons. He has navigated a difficult situation nicely to this point, but it gets exponentially harder from here.

Chapman really is no great loss at this point, as he struggled throwing his fastball for strikes. That inability was even low on his list of demerits, however, since he skipped a workout and at one point had to go on the IL with an infection from an upper-leg tattoo. With irony, the bad ink led to more bad ink, as he understandably drew negative press for his foolhardy mistake.

Thanks to their $260 million payroll and certain AL MVP Aaron Judge, the Yankees understandably remain the heavy favorite in their matchup with the small-market, low-revenue, tiny-payroll Cleveland Guardians (everyone on our outstanding Post staff picked the Yankees but me, which eliminated me from the MPPOY award that easily goes to Boone; see the first paragraph). I get it, of course, the Yankees out-homered the Guardians by exactly double (254 to 127), they outspent them by an even greater margin and Judge remains a Yankee (for now anyway).

But let me explain. If the games are tight, the Guardians hold a big edge. While the Yankees technically had an even better season out of their pen — Yankees relievers posted a third-best in baseball 2.97 ERA to Cleveland’s fifth best 3.05 — as noted, half the Yankees’ group is missing, leaving a hole bigger than the one in left field when Anthony Rizzo bats.

While Boone will be busy mixing and matching, probable AL manager of the Year Terry Francona possesses a pen that’s set up for success. The anchor is Emmanuel Clase, who led MLB with 42 saves and is Cleveland’s version of Edwin Diaz (without the trumpets or fanfare). Clase has a better overall supporting cast than Diaz, with a nice variety of pitchers, including lefties and righties, plus soft throwers, hard throwers and very hard throwers.

Throw out those regular-season numbers. The pen comparison is a rout for Cleveland. Of course, it only matters if they keep games close, which seems possible with a very solid rotation fronted by Shane Bieber, Triston McKenzie and Game 1 NLDS starter Cal Quantrill. Of course, if the games are blowouts, which is always possible with the Yankees, who vacillated between world beaters and a one-man show at different times, the Guardians will be toast.

But if it come down to a battle of the bullpens, the Guardians will be in great stead. James Karinchak seems recovered from the shock that came with the unexpected ban on sticky stuff to turn back into a viable reliever, joining Trevor Stephan (a Rule 5 pickup from the Yankees, who could use him now), little right-hander Eli Morgan (the son of noted sports editor Dave Morgan) and lefty Sam Hentges (who may be the most anonymous of an unknown but excellent group).

While the Yankees’ relief corps includes three former All-Star closers at full strength (Holmes plus Chapman and Britton), as constructed now it’s uncertain who will close, who will set up and who will get key outs. Lou Trivino, the one deadline pickup currently healthy (Andrew Benintendi and Frankie Montas, like Effross, are on the IL), may be key since he’s improved dramatically since coming to The Bronx after a slow start in the obscurity of Oakland. Lefty Wandy Peralta will be vital, too, though he, too, had a recent injury question.

Fortunately, with this being a five-game series with two off days, the Yankees had the luxury of moving solid back-end starters Domingo German and Jameson Taillon, to the bullpen. Which at least allowed the Yankees to fill the chairs out there.