The Yankees bullpen played a huge role in avoiding the sweep to the Phillies, pitching 3.2 scoreless to end the final game of the series on a high note. However, the unit still gave up 15 runs in the first two games of the series and entered play with the worst ERA (7.10) and fWAR (-1.2) in July of any American League bullpen. They figure to require multiple reinforcements if the Yankees are to make the playoffs and make a deep run, which perhaps explains recent reports linking the team to Rockies
right-handed reliever Jake Bird.
2025 Statistics: 44 games, 53.1 IP, 4.05 ERA (116 ERA+), 3.09 FIP, 3.32 xFIP, 26.7% percent K%, 9.1% percent BB%, 0.9 fWAR
2025 FanGraphs Depth Charts Rest of Season Projections: 21 games, 21 IP, 4.23 ERA, 3.96 FIP, 22% K%, 9.4% BB%, 0.1 fWAR
Contract Status: Pre-arbitration-eligible, earning $770,000. Becomes free agent following 2028 season.
Through the first three months of the season, Bird was one of the best relievers in baseball, rocketing his name near the top of lists of likely MLB Trade Deadline candidates. His 48 innings ranked second and 1.2 fWAR tied for sixth among qualified relievers, a 2.63 ERA and 2.53 FIP tantalizing to teams in search of middle relief help.
Jake Bird was PUMPED UP after recording three straight strikeouts to strand the bases loaded for the @Rockies pic.twitter.com/eVNB4haf31
— MLB (@MLB) June 7, 2025
But then the wheels came off over the last three weeks. Bird has given up 11 runs on 14 hits in his last seven appearances totaling 5.1 innings including a pair of home runs after giving up two in his first 37 games. The strikeouts have dried up while fly balls are on the rise, and in an instant one of the coveted relievers of the deadline has a lot more question marks attached to his name.
Fortunately, there is a silver lining in this for Bird and interested teams. FIP, xFIP, BABIP, and expected wOBA all paint a picture of a pitcher who has not pitched as poorly as his results during this seven-game stretch might suggest. And it’s not like this year is a flash in the pan for Bird as he finished 2023 with the most innings pitched and a top-23 fWAR among qualified relievers.
When he’s at his best, Bird is a desirable blend of swing and miss and soft contact. He places in the top 20-percent of the league in strikeout rate, average exit velocity, and barrel rate and has impressive suppressed home runs in Coors, allowing less than one home run per nine for his career. He achieves this by throwing a dangerous duo of breaking balls in the sweeper and curveball a combined 63-percent of the time — almost double his fastball usage. Each pitch returns a whiff rate in excess of 33-percent, summing to seven runs in breaking ball run value — 90th percentile in MLB. And his fastball is no slouch either — a mid-90s sinker with the 14th-most downward movement vs. average of any sinker in baseball this year. That his breaking balls have performed so well in the punishing thin air of Coors while being backed up by a ground-ball machine heater bodes well in any potential new home ballpark.
In his previously linked report for The Athletic, Brendan Kuty claims that the three years of team control beyond this season may dissuade the Rockies from dealing Bird. However, a 29-year-old middle reliever is generally not the type of player teams hug for the future to build around — although this is the Rockies we’re talking about so I guess anything goes. It remains to be seen how aggressive the Yankees look to add in the wake of Aaron Judge’s injury. However, as the Amed Rosario trade and reports linking them to several players suggest, it appears the front office is holding firm to their stated goal of making multiple additions before the deadline.
Despite the multiple years of team control, Bird’s recent downturn has likely driven down his cost into a range I imagine the Yankees would entertain, and the remaining money he is owed this season would have a negligible impact on salary. That being said, incumbent middle relievers Fernando Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr. are nearing their returns from injury, so I wouldn’t expect the Yankees to break the bank for a reliever outside of one of the few bullpen aces in the game. The framework for successful negotiations between the Yankees and Rockies has already been established with the Ryan McMahon trade, so Bird’s is a name I would watch in the coming days.
More from pinstripealley.com:
- Yankees acquire Amed Rosario from Nationals
- On the ranging impact of the Ryan McMahon trade
- Aaron Judge heading to the IL with a flexor strain
- Yankees Trade Deadline Coverage
- Yankees 2025 draft tracker: 18 of 19 draftees sign
- Pinstripe Alley’s Top 100 Yankees
- 2000 Yankees Diary: The 25th Anniversary of MLB’s Last Three-peat
