Guetterman Stands Above All Others on the Yankee Staff

Step forward, Dallas Green says to the New York Yankees every day. Lots of jobs here. Take one.

No Yankee has responded to the manager’s plea more than Lee Guetterman, the 6-foot-8 pitcher whose steps forward have been huge strides.

Guetterman, who most likely would have begun the season at triple-A Columbus, Ohio, had Ron Guidry not required arthroscopic surgery on his left elbow, has been the Yankees’ most effective pitcher, the only one who remains unscored upon.

Guetterman has made five appearances totaling eight innings and given up six hits and no walks. Wednesday night, he earned his first major league save with a scoreless ninth inning to preserve a 5-3 victory for John Candelaria.

That Green chose him for the assignment indicates that Guetterman’s giant steps have taken him in another direction. He longs to be a starter, but the Yankees need Guetterman to be their left-handed closer until an elbow-ailing Dave Righetti gets his game in shape.

“With Goot, I’m running a little bit of a hot hand,” Green said. “He’s been our best pitcher. I need a guy in that situation who’ll throw strikes and not walk people. I have faith Goot can do that.”

Guetterman has pitched the Yankees out of jams consistently and, in the first save opportunity he can recall, pitched them out of a seven-game losing streak. He yielded a leadoff single in the ninth Wednesday night, but his sinker induced an immediate double-play grounder. Two more singles followed before he sewed it up with a bouncer to the box.

“I was nervous,” he admitted. “That’s not a familiar situation for me.”

Guetterman’s emergence as a key figure on the pitching staff has been one of the Yankees’ quieter stories, which is somehow fitting, because the Tennessean himself speaks barely above a whisper.

His silent, easygoing manner may have been misinterpreted by other managers, notably Billy Martin. He felt Guetterman lacked aggression last year and shipped him out three weeks into the season.

“After I was traded, I was told I’d have every opportunity to be a starter and I opened the year in the bullpen,” Guetterman said. “Then I was gone after one bad game. When something like that happens, you start to wonder, ‘What are they doing?’ You start to think you have to be perfect every time out or you’ll lose your job.”

If Green had any preconceived notions about Guetterman, they were positive. After all, Green’s pitching coach is Billy Connors, something of a guru for Guetterman, who was 11-4 as a starter with the Seattle Mariners in 1987 when Connors was Seattle’s pitching coach.

“The first day of camp, Lee asked if he should talk to Dallas about his role,” Connors said. “I told him to just get people out. That would determine his role. Lee hasn’t backed off. He’s gone after the hitters and gotten ground balls.”

Connors kept reminding Green how well Guetterman was pitching this spring, but it wasn’t until Guidry went down that the manager began to take a closer look at Guetterman for the job as left-handed long reliever.

In previous years, that role would not have interested Guetterman, a starter in the minors and for most of ’87. That year, he was 8-1 at the All-Star break but was shifted to the bullpen after losing three of his next four starts.

“Lee won five in a row and then lost his command,” Connors recalled. “He seemed afraid to let the guys hit the ball. That’s trouble for a sinkerball pitcher. What was worse was his mental block about relieving. It took a long time for him to realize flexibility is a great asset for a pitcher.”

Guetterman, a devout Baptist, relied on his religious faith and the support of his wife, Drew, to overcome what he calls “the reliever-starter syndrome” that threatened to end his career.

“I realize now it doesn’t matter where you pitch as long as it’s in the big leagues,” he said. “It seemed like nobody was on my side, except my wife. To go through this was a trial, not only for me but for my wife and family. The stabilizing factor was the work of God.”