{"id":124105,"date":"2026-06-20T17:50:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T21:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=124105"},"modified":"2026-06-20T17:50:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T21:50:49","slug":"yankees-make-moves-to-rotation-boost-bullpen-and-catching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/06\/20\/yankees-make-moves-to-rotation-boost-bullpen-and-catching\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Make Moves to Rotation, Boost Bullpen and Catching"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Yankees have been rolling over the month of June, but two concerns loomed over the Yankees’ roster. The first being the lack of catching offense<\/a> and the other being the struggling Yankees’ bullpen. Both are about to (hopefully) get a lift. After the Yankees’ 10-2 loss to the Reds, the Yankees decided to make some changes.<\/p>\n

Starting Rotation Change<\/h2>\n

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The team is shuffling their rotation, according to manager Aaron Boone. Gerrit Cole<\/a> will not be starting in the series finale against the Reds, with young Elmer Rodriguez<\/a> taking his place. This has nothing to do with health, Boone said. The Yankees do not have an off day until July 2nd, and the Yankees did not want all five starters pitching on regular rest for that long. With the depth the Yankees possess, they have the ability to give their starters a break.<\/p>\n

“Something we’ve been kicking around the past few days,” Boone said postgame.<\/span><\/p>\n

To make room on the 26-man roster, they have optioned reliever Jake Bird<\/a>. In the big leagues this season, Bird has posted a 5.09 ERA over 23 innings pitched. For a long stretch, it felt like every time Bird came into the game, he surrendered a run.<\/p>\n

Bird’s Replacement<\/h2>\n
\"ankees
May 21, 2026; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees relief pitcher Yovanny Cruz (96) reacts after getting taken out of the game in the sixth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The expectation is that another reliever will be added prior to the series against the Tigers in Detroit on Monday. The leading candidate is currently Yovanny Cruz<\/a>, though nothing is definite as of yet. Cruz pitched in two games with the club and did not give up a run. His stuff touches triple digits, and he definitely has more promise than some of the other options the team has currently.<\/p>\n

Yankees Catchers moves<\/h2>\n

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The team is activating Austin Wells<\/a> off the IL. Wells was placed on the IL on June 6th<\/a> with cervical headaches. On his rehab assignment, Wells has posted a .952 OPS with two home runs in his three games played. J.C. Escarra<\/a>, who had not hit well this season, was optioned to AAA Scranton. Escarra was initially optioned to AAA before Wells was placed on the IL in favor of Ali S\u00e1nchez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Main Image Credit:<\/strong> Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Yankees have been rolling over the month of June, but two concerns loomed over the Yankees’ roster. The first being the lack of catching offense and the other being the struggling Yankees’ bullpen. Both are about to (hopefully) get a lift. After the Yankees’ 10-2 loss to the Reds, the Yankees decided to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5663,"featured_media":124110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,5,35],"tags":[3602,29251,611,6343,41],"class_list":["post-124105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-yankees","category-news","tag-austin-wells","tag-elmer-rodriguez","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-jake-bird","tag-new-york-yankees"],"modified_by":"Matthew Nethercott, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124111,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124105\/revisions\/124111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}