Breaking down Tyler Clippard’s early season struggles

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the Yankees have a strong bullpen. At present, it leads all of baseball with a 1.45 ERA. If that metric doesn’t suit your fancy, don’t worry, there are others. The club owns the best FIP and K/9 marks in the American League, with marks of 2.00 and 10.69, respectively. Isn’t it nice to have relief corps anchored by Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman?

Then there’s Tyler Clippard. The Yankees re-acquired him at the trade deadline last season, and he rewarded them down the stretch. The veteran right-hander posted a 2.49 ERA (4.05 FIP) with a 9.24 K/9 rate. Always an extreme fly-ball pitcher, Clippard managed to keep the ball in the park with a 7.9%…