New York Yankees: With Greg Bird nearing a return will 13 pitchers be an option?
By Jason Evans
With Greg Bird close to returning for the New York Yankees, they could face a roster crunch
The New York Yankees this season have generally used 13 pitchers and only a three-man bench with a DH. That has been partly due to injuries among their position players. Clint Frazier is one of the injured players, but he’s back healthy now, and was even up with the big club over the weekend and was sent back down.
Greg Bird is another injured player who is on his way back to health. Bird is continuing his rehab assignment in AAA this week and could be back in the majors as early as this week — which presents a roster crunch for the New York Yankees.
Neil Walker has no minor league options left. After struggling to start, Walker has hit .333/.440/.476 over his last seven games. Tyler Austin does have minor league options. However, he’s hitting .261 with a .910 OPS. Against lefties, he’s hitting .324 with a 1.098 OPS.
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The New York Yankees have a ton of left-handed pitching they have to face in their division with Chris Sale, David Price , nd J.A. Happ. They aren’t going to send down Ronald Torreyes, since he is the utility infielder.
So what do the New York Yankees do?
Outside of releasing or trading Walker, which they aren’t going to do, they are going to have to stick with 12 pitchers. Austin needs to be kept around to face lefties, and it may be best for Bird to ease him back into things anyway.
Part of the reason the New York Yankees were carrying so many pitchers is due to some inconsistent starting pitching. Sonny Gray is very up and down with yesterday’s start being a very big up. Domingo German only has a couple of starts under his belt for his career as well.
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The New York Yankees are in a very enviable position of depth. They have plenty of bats who are in AAA who could easily be on a major league roster like Frazier, Adam Lind, Brandon Drury and Tyler Wade. With Bird coming back, possibly even this week, this depth may mean that they carry one less arm in the bullpen.