Yankees’ Bullpen Woes Continue, Option Recently-Acquired Jake Bird to Triple-A
The New York Yankees have optioned recent trade deadline acquisition Jake Bird to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, per the club’s announcement on Tuesday.
Bird’s demotion arrives less than a week after he was acquired via trade from the Colorado Rockies, a deal that sent infielder Roc Riggio and left-hander Ben Shields in return, and one day after earning the loss in Monday’s 8-5 walk-off defeat to the Texas Rangers.
The 29-year-old righty surrendered a three-run, game-winning home run to Josh Jung after the team intentionally walked Wyatt Langford in the bottom of the 10th inning – a game in which New York held a one-run lead with one out during the previous inning.
Since joining the Yankees’ bullpen, Bird has struggled mightily to adjust to his new surroundings, allowing seven runs (six earned) on four hits – including two home runs – with a pair of walks in three appearances, amassing a dreadful 27.00 ERA across just two innings of work.
Making matters worse, New York has dropped five straight following Tuesday’s defeat and sits third in the AL East entering Wednesday’s slate, trailing the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays for first place. However, they still reside in a playoff spot at 60-54, controlling the third of three wild-card seeds.
“The season’s getting shorter in a hurry,” manager Aaron Boone told reporters, including MLB.com’s Dave Sessions, following Monday’s walk-off defeat in Texas. “So it’s no time for excuses and feeling bad, and I know everyone feels like crap, but we’ve got to go take it. And we haven’t been able to do that here on this road trip so far, but we’ve got to do better.”
Yankees GM Brian Cashman acquired three relievers – Bird, David Bednar (via Pittsburgh) and Camilo Doval (via San Francisco) – prior to last Thursday’s trade deadline to help fortify the back end of the bullpen. But all three have endured rough starts since joining their new team.
Bednar and Doval have already been tagged with one blown save each since their respective arrivals, while Bird now finds himself on his way to Triple-A. Closer Devin Williams, who blew the save on Monday, has also struggled of late and owns an inflated 7.71 ERA and 7.39 FIP over his last seven appearances.
Overall, New York’s bullpen has posted the second-highest ERA (6.13) in the majors since the start of July, ahead of only Colorado (7.24). They also rank 28th in FIP (5.44), 29th in HR/9 (1.99) and 30th in fWAR (-1.2).
With Bird optioned to Triple-A, the Yankees will likely fill his roster spot with the returning Mark Leiter Jr. from the injured list. Slugger Aaron Judge was activated prior to Tuesday’s contest versus the Rangers, but had an uneventful day at the plate going 0 for 3.
Needless to say, New York needs all the help it can get amidst the franchise’s worst stretch of the season, featuring the second-worst AL record (12-19) since June 30 – ahead of only the MLB-worst Tampa Bay Rays (9-22) in that span.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Kjetil Ree. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.