TORONTO — The Yankees’ bullpen shuffling continued Thursday and may not stop until next month’s trade deadline.
Jake Cousins became the latest rookie to join the team’s relief corps, being promoted from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after Yondris Gomez was injured again before the Yankees began their series against the Blue Jays.
The Yankees’ bullpen was strong early in the season, but has been in disarray recently with a lot of turnover.
They also had to pitch 25 innings in the Yankees’ final six games before Thursday, giving up 20 runs (15 earned) during that time, but their struggles don’t just extend to last week.
“We’re going through some tough times, we’re struggling a little bit,” manager Aaron Boone said before Cousins pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in Thursday’s win over the Blue Jays. “We’ve had turnovers, we’re trying to get guys to define roles. We had a couple of guys that we were leading and we handed the ball to late, which we’ve been very happy with. But we’re still figuring out the pecking order, the depth, what’s the right role for each guy. That’s been a little bit of a challenge the last couple weeks.”
Clay Holmes, Luke Weaver, Michael Tonkin and, more recently, Tommy Kahnle have all been some of Boone’s most trusted members of the varsity squad.
Left-hander Caleb Ferguson has struggled to produce consistent results, but the other three pitchers — Cousins, Phil Bickford and Tim Hill — were all added within the past week.
Acquired by the White Sox just days into the season, Cousins gave up one run over three innings for the Yankees in April before being demoted to Triple-A.
He spent nearly two months on the disabled list there but recently returned, appearing in seven games with a 3.00 ERA.
Although it was merely a formality, Aaron Judge was named a starting outfielder on the American League All-Star team on Thursday after receiving the most fan votes in the first phase of allocation.
Juan Soto, who finished second to Judge in the American League voting, is the only Yankees player to advance to the second phase of All-Star voting, which begins Sunday.
Scott Efros, a potential revitalizer for the Yankees’ relief corps, made his third rehab appearance Thursday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, pitching one scoreless inning with two strikeouts and two hits.
Boone said Efros, who is returning from Tommy John surgery and back surgery, is expected to make “a few appearances” at Triple-A before returning to the bullpen.
“I’m excited to watch him continue to develop because obviously he can be a big piece for us,” Boone said.
Relief pitcher Clayton Andrews, who was designated for assignment last week, opted for free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A.
