{"id":47428,"date":"2025-08-05T16:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/47428\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T16:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:42:11","slug":"yankees-option-jake-bird-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/47428\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Option Jake Bird – MLB Trade Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Yankees have optioned right-hander Jake Bird<\/a> to Triple-A, per a team announcement. A corresponding move has not yet been announced, though ESPN\u2019s Jorge Castillo<\/a> notes that right-hander Mark Leiter Jr.<\/a> is expected back from the injured list today and could take Bird\u2019s roster spot.<\/p>\n

Bird, 29, was one of the Yankees\u2019 trio of potential high-leverage bullpen additions acquired ahead of the trade deadline last week. With a 4.73 ERA and 3.89 FIP to go along with a 26.3% strikeout rate for the Rockies this year, Bird showed himself capable of putting up at least decent numbers even when playing half his games at Coors Field. That was enough to intrigue the Yankees, and they surrendered Second base prospect Roc Riggio<\/a> and pitching prospect Ben Shields<\/a> in order to acquire him. While Bird lacks the track record of dominance that David Bednar<\/a> and Camilo Doval<\/a> both offer, he comes with three years of team control after 2025 and the hope was that he could help deepen a bullpen mix that will lose Devin Williams<\/a> and Luke Weaver<\/a> to free agency this winter.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only been a few games, but the early returns have not been great. The Yankees found themselves swept at the hands of the Marlins in the days following the deadline and have yet to win a game in August. That slump has left them with just a 1.5 game lead over the Rangers for the final AL Wild Card spot, and Bird has been in the thick of those troubles. After surrendering four runs to the Marlins while recording just one out in his Yankees debut, the right-hander surrendered three runs (two earned) while recording two outs against Texas last night. Those six runs allowed in a combined two innings of work across three appearances leave him with a 27.00 ERA for his Yankees career, and now he\u2019s headed to the minor leagues as New York waits for him to get right.<\/p>\n

While an effective version of Bird would undoubtedly make the Yankees\u2019 bullpen better, it\u2019s hard to argue they\u2019re light on talent at the moment. Williams, Weaver, Bednar, and Doval have all had worrying moments at points throughout the season, but each has a strong track record of success in the late innings. And now it seems they\u2019ll be reinforced later today by the return of Leiter, who has been sidelined for the past month due to a stress fracture<\/a> in the fibular head of his left leg. Acquired from the Cubs at last year\u2019s deadline, Leiter\u2019s 4.46 ERA in 41 appearances leaves something to be desired but his underlying metrics remain brilliant. He\u2019s struck out 29.1% of his opponents this year while walking a career-lower 7.6%, and he\u2019s paired all that with a career-best 49.0% ground ball rate. If Leiter keeps looking that good in his return to action, that elevated ERA should come back down in a hurry as he helps avoid further bullpen meltdowns in the Bronx.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Yankees have optioned right-hander Jake Bird to Triple-A, per a team announcement. A corresponding move has not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,22382,32928,82],"class_list":["post-47428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-jake-bird","tag-mark-leiter-jr","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}