Yankees Bolster Bullpen With David Bednar, Jake Bird, and Camilo Doval

As Thursday’s 6 PM deadline approached, the New York Yankees finally made their big bullpen moves, first trading for closer David Bednar from the Pittsburgh Pirates and sending back catcher Rafael Flores, catcher Edgleen Perez, and outfielder Brian Sanchez. Bednar, with a year of arbitration remaining next season, has allowed a 2.37 ERA and a 1.96 FIP while striking out 51 batters and walking only 10 in 38 innings this year.

Also donning (non-purple) pinstripes is Jake Bird, whom the Yankees acquired from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for second baseman Roc Riggio and left-handed starter Ben Shields. Bird, in his fourth year with the Rockies, has a 4.73 ERA for the season, but a much sunnier 3.45 FIP, and he has struck out nearly 11 batters per nine innings, easily the best mark of his career.

But that wasn’t quite enough for the Yankees, and as the clock approached the top of the hour, they picked up Camilo Doval from the San Francisco Giants for three prospects: catcher-third baseman Jesus Rodriguez, right-handed starter Trystan Vrieling, and first baseman Parks Harber.

Seemingly every interesting reliever on a non-contending team was traded this week, so it was only a matter of time until the Yankees jumped in, especially given that the first-place Blue Jays hadn’t been sitting around twiddling their thumbs. The Yankees bullpen hasn’t been an utter disaster, but it’s been one of their weaker units in recent years, with an ERA and FIP both on the wrong side of four. The Steamer/ZiPS depth chart projections were relatively happy with the front three or four members of the bullpen, anchored by Devin Williams, but saw real weakness at the back end.

After a brutal start to the season, Williams temporarily lost the closer job, getting it back after a Luke Weaver hamstring injury. Since returning to closing games, Williams has been generally effective, with a 3.66 ERA and 2.84 FIP while converting 12 of 13 save opportunities. But he’s been rockier over the last week, with a blown save on Wednesday and several less-than-clean escapes. Weaver, one of last year’s key pitchers down the stretch, has struggled since coming back from injury. Against this backdrop, it’s not the least bit surprising to see the Yankees add relief help. None of these new relievers are free agents at the end of the season, so New York is playing the long game here.

Few, if any, relievers have restored their value over the last three months as much as Bednar. After two All-Star appearances in 2022 and 2023, Bednar was so brutal last year that he lost his closing job late in the season to Aroldis Chapman, and an awful opening series against the Marlins this year resulted in a demotion to Triple-A Indianapolis. Since coming back, he’s relied on his usually effective curveball more than ever, and is arguably having the best season of his career. The Pirates are sellers and have about as much actual need for a veteran closer as a cat has for a laptop.

Since the Yankees are getting a full year on top of the stretch drive, the prospects sent to Pittsburgh are good ones. Edgleen Perez was ranked sixth in our updated Yankees prospect rankings before the trade, and while his power has yet to really develop, he has very good plate discipline and can hit his fair share of hard line drives. As a 19-year-old catcher, it would be a bad idea to take his seasonal line too seriously, and the Pirates will no doubt be patient given that he’s likely to stick at the position. Eric Longenhagen notes that Perez remains especially vulnerable to secondary pitches thrown outside.

Whereas Perez’s fate requires some projection and speculation, Rafael Flores is probably nearly the player he’s destined to become. He has followed up a 152 wRC+ at two levels last year with a 146 wRC+ and 15 homers in 87 games for Double-A Somerset this year. ZiPS throws out names like Phil Nevin and A.J. Hinch as offensive comps, among others. Defense, on the other hand, is a different story. He’s not a complete liability behind the plate, but defense is far from his forte. Eric has described Flores to me as a “viable, but flawed, big league fit,” who teams will run on a lot due to a strong, but inaccurate arm that hasn’t made progress. This means he might end up catching in Pittsburgh, but likely as part of a tandem, not someone you send out there 120 times a year.

Brian Sanchez hasn’t gotten a lot of attention from scouts, but he’s yet to hit a wall offensively and has solid enough speed and a frame that suggests that there could at least be some power/speed upside. He’s improved his contact rate in each of his three minor league seasons, going from 57% to 68% to 77%, and he does get on base. The Florida State League is a long way from the NL Central, though, and he’s been slow to advance through the minors. Even so, Sanchez is worth watching the next few years.

As was the case with Bednar — and also Doval, whom we’ll get to in a moment — Bird struggled last season after a strong 2023, and also like the other two, he’s rebounded in the current campaign. Earlier in the season, Bird was looking a lot like he might end up as the token Rockies All-Star, sitting at a 1.41 ERA in mid-June. He’s had a rough time of it since, allowing 22 earned runs over his last 15 innings, an absolutely abysmal run. While nothing can completely absolve such a performance, opponents have touched Bird up for a ridiculous .448 BABIP during that stretch; no professional pitcher’s actual skill level is that bad. The Yankees probably won’t throw him into high-leverage situations right away — and considering they now have no fewer than four closers, they don’t need to use him there — but there’s nothing so obviously broken about Bird that he shouldn’t be counted as crucial middle-inning depth. And given Bird’s early success, the Yankees have a lot of potential upside here, even more so when you consider their track record of improving relief pitchers after bringing them over from other organizations. It wouldn’t at all be surprising if New York’s pitching gurus have some notes for Bird, who isn’t eligible to reach free agency until after the 2028 season.

Roc Riggio hasn’t really been a favorite of scouts or on other prospect lists, though Eric currently evaluates him as a 45 FV, which is real prospect territory. All Riggio has done is hit this season, and ZiPS already thinks he’s good enough to be a role player in the majors. Here’s what Eric said about Riggio in his updated report following the trade:

Riggio became famous when he committed to UCLA ridiculously early (he was in eighth grade). He didn’t end up a Bruin and instead matriculated to Oklahoma State, where he hit very well for two years as he embraced a sort of grinder/heel persona. He ended up slashing .316/.438/.601 in two seasons for the Cowboys, then .221/.349/.397 with 11 home runs and 27 steals at High-A Hudson Valley in his first full season. He hit his way to Double-A Somerset in 2025 and was slashing a robust .264/.370/.567 at the time he was traded for Jake Bird. Lefty-hitting infielders with this kind of bat speed are uncommon, and the Yankees made changes to Riggio’s swing (he has a much bigger leg kick now) that have made it more athletic and seem to have positively impacted his plate coverage. He’s been more dangerous than vulnerable against pitches out away from him this year, and had a 55% hard hit rate around he midway point of the summer. Riggio is no slouch as a defender, either, even though he is likely limited to second base. His surface stats are a caricature of his true talent because the hitting environments at Hudson Valley and Somerset are favorable, but this is still an “arrow up” prospect who is starting to look like a potential everyday second baseman.

Drafted in 2024 but already 26 years old, Ben Shields is an older prospect, but he’s had success since joining the professional ranks, striking out 179 batters in 141 2/3 innings. It’s worth noting he missed a good chunk of this season due to a hip injury, but he’s been good when he has been on the mound. He only has two pitches — a lively fastball and a slider, which he has trouble throwing for strikes — and he’ll need to develop a third to stick as a starter moving forward. Still, he does have the makings of a good lefty out of the bullpen.

Like Bednar, Doval was an All-Star in 2023 who is pitching well again after a dreadful performance last season. The former Giants fireballer is not quite back to where he was two years ago, as he’s still walking a few too many batters and his strikeout rate has dropped, but simplifying his arsenal — he’s mostly jettisoned the sinker at this point and is almost exclusively slider/cutter — has shored up his command a bit. No matter how good, a closer with a knack for allowing ball fours is a good source of baseball-induced anxiety.

It would have been almost unthinkable for San Francisco to be sellers a month ago, but losing 13 of 16 games heading into the deadline clarified the team’s situation in a bad way. The Giants also traded sidearmer Tyler Rogers to the Mets, but they still have Randy Rodríguez and Ryan Walker at the top of the pen, and they picked up José Buttó in the Rogers deal.

With Doval added, along with Bednar and Bird, the Yankees built nearly half of a top-notch bullpen in just three hours. In rest-of-season projections, ZiPS had the Yankees bullpen ranked 17th in the league overall on Thursday morning. These three trades bumped them all the way up to third! As an added bonus, Doval is under club control for two more seasons after this one.

The big question with Jesus Rodriguez is where he’ll end up actually playing. He’s a catcher by trade, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to do enough with the glove to be a full-timer there. The problem is, he’s not going to displace Matt Chapman at third, leaving his most likely path to the majors in San Francisco as a backup or emergency catcher who plays the other four corners as well.

Trystan Vrieling looks like he may stick as a starter; he has solid command but rather underwhelming stuff. While he hasn’t been beat up in Double-A this year, he’s also allowed a contact rate over 80%, which isn’t what you want to see from a pitching prospect. If a command guy can’t punch out a bunch of Double-A hitters with his secondary pitches, he’s certainly not going to be able to do so in the majors. Still, the Giants can certainly use the depth. ZiPS gives Vrieling a good chance to be a usable fifth starter type but without much upside.

Parks Harber certainly has the appearance of a classic grip-it-and-rip-it power hitter, and he played football in high school, but his power really isn’t where it needs to be to put him on the prospect map. As an undrafted free agent, he’s been promoted conservatively, and his 156 wRC+ this year in High-A has to be taken with a huge pile of salt given that he turns 24 before the end of the season. He’s worth a follow as he advances through the system, but he probably has a steeper uphill climb to pop up on San Francisco’s roster someday than either Rodriguez or Vrieling.