The New York Yankees sent Reliever Jake Bird down to the minor leagues earlier today. Bird, 29, was acquired by the Yankees from the Colorado Rockies at the trade deadline and was a part of the abundance of moves the Yankees made with their bullpen. However, since Bird has arrived in New York, he has struggled mightily. The Yankees’ plans to reinforce their bullpen have not worked out, and sending Bird down is not making those moves look great.
In two innings with New York, Jake Bird has given up six earned runs in three appearances, with an abysmal 27.00 ERA and a 3.00 WHIP. Nothing has been going Bird’s way, and a trip to the minors might be what he needs to get on track. In his two innings of work with the Yankees, he’s given up four hits. Opponents have been batting .400 and have a 1.500 OPS against Bird since he’s joined New York.
Simply put, since he joined the Yankees, any hitter that’s gone up against Bird has been batting like the best player to ever play Major League Baseball. Okay, there’s a bit of sarcasm with that statement since it’s just two innings, but it’s alarmingly bad two innings of work.
Bird wasn’t particularly effective in Colorado either. But to be honest, no one on the Rockies has been effective this year. The question is, what did the New York Yankees see in this guy? Maybe they thought his bloated numbers were attributed to playing at Coors Field, and getting him away from an abysmal team might help, but it hasn’t helped at all.
Hopefully, Bird can go down to the minors and figure things out, because the Yankees sure need some help. Without Aaron Judge, the team has consistently made costly mistakes, including defensive errors left and right, along with inexcusable baserunning.
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