Michael King was watching on TV when the Yankees clinched the American League East in Toronto on Sept. 27. Out since July 22 after suffering a stress fracture in his throwing elbow, King, a right-handed reliever, found himself at home drinking water — not champagne or beer — while his teammates raged north of the border.
He was on a video call with his girlfriend when a call came in from Scott Effross, another Yankees right-handed reliever. “I need to take this,” King said. Suddenly he was on with Effross, some other Yankees relievers and the team’s catchers, Jose Trevino and Kyle Higashioka.
Their message?
“You’re a huge part of this team. You’re still a huge part of this team,” the rookie right-hander Ron Marinaccio said, echoing sentiments shared by everyone on the phone. “We didn’t forget about him putting us on his back the first half of the season.”
“I’m actually shocked that Scott’s phone is still working because of how much beer was thrown at it,” King said of the call. “I had to thank Scott a lot for that because it made my night.”
King, 27, played a pivotal part in the Yankees’ bullpen, tallying a 2.29 E.R.A. over 51 innings before his season-ending injury required surgery. Despite having his season end in late July, he still finished in the top 10 among relievers with 1.7 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs.
So with King on site for the Yankees’ American League division series celebration on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium after a Game 5 win over Cleveland, his peers saw to it that he partied properly this time.
“I made sure I got him with some Budweisers,” Trevino said. “Like about six of them. I was like, ‘You’re not leaving! I’m gonna get you!’”
While King wasn’t around for the festivities in Toronto, he has made it a point to be with the team as often as possible since his injury.
King opted to rehabilitate his injury in New York — with the blessing of the Yankees’ physical therapists — as opposed to doing so at the organization’s complex in Tampa, Fla. That allowed him to cheer on and learn from a group he calls his “best friends.”
King turned into an excited spectator when his pals Marinaccio and Greg Weissert, a rookie right-hander, helped fill the void created by his absence, and he bonded with Effross — who found out he needed Tommy John surgery before the playoffs — on the injured list. The right-hander Clay Holmes also gave King someone he could relate to, as the closer’s own Tommy John procedure sidelined him during his time as a prospect.
“I feel for him because I’ve kind of been in his shoes a little bit,” Holmes said. “You know, having T.J. and just understanding kind of what that’s like, in some sense, just missing out.”
King is not the only Yankees reliever to have traveled with the team during the playoffs, creating a sharp contrast with Aroldis Chapman, the team’s former closer, who did not report for a mandatory workout before the playoffs and was left off the team’s rosters for the A.L.D.S. and A.L. Championship Series.
Chad Green, out since May because of Tommy John surgery, and Zack Britton, whose own Tommy John comeback lasted just three games, were in the Bronx for the A.L.D.S. Britton drove from his home in Austin, Texas, to Houston for the A.L.C.S., and Marinaccio went too despite not making the roster because of a shin injury.
Green, a right-hander who will be eligible for free agency this off-season, didn’t venture to Houston so he could focus on his rehab. But the left-handed Britton has been hanging around at the request of General Manager Brian Cashman.
“Obviously, it’s harder to watch. But just being around the guys,” Britton, another upcoming free agent, said when asked why he’s still tagging along. “I talked to Cash a little bit at the end of the year when I knew I probably wasn’t ready to come back after that last outing. He was like, ‘We’d like for you to stick around.’ We have a pretty inexperienced bullpen. Just helping the guys out if I can.”
Britton, who has appeared in 21 career playoff games with Baltimore and the Yankees, said that he’s been acting as a mentor from the dugout, sharing his postseason experiences with the team’s active pitchers. He knows what it’s like to pitch before a hostile Minute Maid Park crowd or at a raucous Yankee Stadium, or to face Yordan Alvarez with the game on the line.
Those insights can help, but Britton isn’t overselling his role. He knows that experience is the best teacher this time of year.
“There are little things that happen in the postseason that maybe don’t happen in the regular season,” Britton said. “And the more you pitch in the postseason in a higher leverage situation, the more you realize, ‘Hey, some of these pitches are more important. You’ve got to be smarter.’”
That’s another reason King has chosen not to leave.
He knows watching in October is worthwhile, no different than how the Yankees brought Derek Jeter along for the 1995 playoffs despite not putting him on the roster.
“It benefits me and my career to stay up here,” said King, who hopes to start a throwing program between late October and late November. “So I was hoping that I’d be here for the rest of the year.”
King’s teammates are thrilled that his wish came true. Not just because they enjoy his presence — and that of the other hurt hurlers — but because it will help the pitcher and his team down the road.
“That just goes into our culture, what we got here building with the Yankees, what we’re about,” Trevino said. “He’s gonna get the experience by sitting there and watching. That way, next year when we’re back here, he’s going to be ready to go.”
Even Britton, a 34-year-old seasoned vet, is hoping for his first taste of being around a team that is competing for a championship.
“World Series, obviously, I want to be there for every game. For all of us, it’s trying to take it all in,” Britton said. “There’s something about — even when you’re not playing — just being submersed in what the playoffs are about.
“You put those in the memory bank for the future, when King’s out there in a postseason game, or Chad again. There’s value to being here and seeing it all happen.”
James Wagner contributed reporting.