The New York Yankees approached the trade deadline with the desire to bolster their bullpen. They achieved that goal by trading for closers David Bednar from the Pittsburgh Steelers and Camilo Doval from the San Francisco Giants. Also, New York traded for Colorado Rockies middle reliever Jake Bird.
Despite the additions, the Yankees continue to shoot themselves in the foot with poor performances by their bullpen. On Monday night, they blew another save opportunity when Devin Williams allowed a game-tying home run to Texas Rangers pinch-hitter Joc Pederson in the ninth frame. An inning later, Bird gave up a walk-off three-run home run to Josh Jung.
After that gut-wrenching 8-5 loss to the Rangers, the Yankees decided to make a move on Bird, sending him to the minors.
“Following last night’s game, the Yankees optioned RHP Jake Bird to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre,” New York shared in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The 29-year-old Bird had a poor debut for the Yankees, as he gave up four earned runs on three hits in a third of an inning in last Friday's collapse against the Miami Marlins on the road at loanDepot park in Miami, with New York suffering a 13-12 loss. He redeemed himself a bit when he pitched a scoreless inning in the following game versus the same team, but he was anything but steady in the series opener against the Rangers at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
The Yankees sent second baseman Roc Riggio and left-handed starter Ben Shields to the Rockies in exchange for Bird, who had a 4.73 ERA in 45 appearances in the 2025 MLB regular season with Colorado. However, the Yankees appeared to like him in part because of his 3.46 FIP, which offered a positive sign for what's to come from the right-handed reliever.
Bird can still find himself back in the big leagues this season, but he'll have to show signs of significant improvement in his stuff if he wants the Yankees to call him back up.
Before Williams and Bird combined for three earned runs on two hits in the Rangers game, Luke Weaver, Doval and Bednar held Texas to three scoreless and hitless innings. Max Fried started on the mound for New York and gave up four earned runs on eight hits with seven punchouts through five frames.
