The Yankees filled obvious needs ahead of the trade deadline with the additions of Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo. New York was desperate for left-handed bats and strong defenders who could provide flexibility on both sides of the ball. The sluggers offered the team two ideal matches.Andrew Heaneys fit with the Yankees is not as clear, though. for Bradley Zimmer Jersey minor league righties Janson Junk and Elvis Peguero, Heaney has stuff, command and advanced metrics that say he is better than the 4.57 career ERA he brought to the Bronx. But Heaney is prone to home runs, fly balls and hard contact. Now he calls Yankee Stadium home.Those traits and that ballpark combined for an unprecedented dud of a debut on Monday: Heaney became the first pitcher in Yankees history to allow four long balls in his first outing with the team, per . The Orioles teed off against the 30-year-old, tagging him for four solo shots and seven hard-hit balls over four innings in a 7-1 win. Heaney allowed six hits and struck out four as his 2021 ERA climbed to 5.42.The damage would have been worse if not for a leaping catch by Gallo.Usually, I say solo homers dont beat you, but you give up four of them in four innings, thats probably gonna do it, Heaney said after the game. Its just frustrating Josh Tomlin Jersey to put the team in a hole like that and not really give us a chance to win there. I wish I could have done better.The reality is that home runs have always hurt Heaney. He has now allowed 20 dingers in 19 starts this season and has averaged over 1.5 HR/9 over his eight-year career. Following the conclusion of Mondays lo s, Heaney now has a 43.4% Fly Ball rate and a Carlos Carrasco Jersey 17.4% Home Run to Fly Ball rate this season. His Hard Hit rate is 42.2%. Those percentages are all among the 20 highest in baseball among pitchers who have thrown at least 90 innings, according to . Yet Heaney also has a 4.40 xERA, a 3.90 xFIP, a 3.73 SIERA, a 1.2 fWAR, a 27.9 K% and a 20.5 K-BB% this year. The spin rate and movement on his fastball are also top-notch. That all says that he has drastically underperformedand surely played a larger part in the Yankees evaluations of the hurler than his ERA. Scroll to ContinueOne of Heaneys biggest problems is that he throws his heater, which has a 59.7% usage rate, down the heart of the plate a lot:So pitch execution and usage are two ways New York will tinker with Heaney; the pitcher admitted as much after coming over from the Angels. Aaron Boone also suggested that the Yankees could make adjustments to Heaneys delivery. With such changes, Heaneys surface numbers could better correspond to his underlying metricsand give the Yankees a real weapon down the stretch.But the hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium will add to that challenge, and theres also a mental aspect to making such changes mid-season. The Yankees Kenny Lofton Jersey cant just pre s a button that says analytics and suddenly transform Heaney into a different pitcher. Heaneys presumed transition will take time, which is why its important not to judge the trade after one bad startthough questions about the move remain. If nothing else, Heaney will give the Yankees depth, a veteran who can eat some innings. That ability Andrew Miller Jersey became more important after the trade than it was at the time of it, as Domingo Germn ( ) and Gerrit Cole ( ) have since found themselves on the shelf.Heaney could also provide should New Yorks sidelined pitchers, including Luis Severino and Corey Kluber, all find themselves on the roster at the same time in the future. However, the Yankees believe theyre getting more than that. They see an arm with untapped potential. Time will tell if they can tap into it. We feel like this is a guy that can really pitch and has a chance to be a really good starter for us, Boone said before Mondays lo s. Were really excited that we were able to get him and add him to the mix.MORE: