There has been more speculation in recent years about the potential for managers to reconfigure their bullpen usage. Instead of the traditional sort of reliever usage that stacks a bullpen’s top three arms in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings, the Yankees should start deploying their top relievers in the highest leverage spots throughout every game.
An optimal measurement of reliever leverage situations is the aforementioned gmLI, produced by Fangraphs to measure a pitcher’s average Leverage Index when he enters the game. Leverage Index itself is an attempt to measure “how on the line the game is at that particular moment.