4:27pm: The deal has been officially announced. Outfielder Bryan De La Cruz was designated for assignment to make room for Bird on the 40-man roster. De La Cruz did not appear in a game with the Yankees but hit .191/.240/.213 in 16 games with Atlanta earlier this year.
2:42pm: The Yankees are reportedly in agreement to acquire reliever Jake Bird from the Rockies for two minor leaguers. Second baseman Roc Riggio and pitcher Ben Shields are going back to Colorado.
Bird is the second, lower-profile bullpen pickup for the Yanks this afternoon. They’re adding two-time All-Star David Bednar in a deal with the Pirates. While Bednar will join Devin Williams and Luke Weaver at the back of the bullpen, Bird projects more as a middle relief type. The 29-year-old righty has a 4.57 earned run average over parts of four seasons with the Rox. That includes a 4.73 mark across 53 1/3 innings this year, though he’s only a few weeks removed from what seemed to be a breakout season.
Through the end of June, Bird was sitting on a 2.68 ERA across 47 innings. He had punched out 29.1% of batters faced while getting ground-balls at a 48% rate. The past few weeks have been a disaster. Bird has been rocked for 15 runs on 16 hits and four walks with five strikeouts in his last 6 1/3 innings. It’s an unfortunate way to end his Colorado tenure.
Bird has been durable and logged almost 90 innings out of Bud Black’s bullpen a couple seasons ago. He has gotten above-average grounder rates in all four MLB seasons — a common trait for Yankee relievers — and has still shown decent swing-and-miss stuff this year. He’s a three-pitch pitcher who sits around 94 MPH with his fastball and leans most often on a mid-80s breaking ball. The horrendous past few weeks didn’t completely detract from Bird’s strong start to the season.
This is Colorado’s second significant trade of deadline season — both of which have involved the Yankees. They sent third baseman Ryan McMahon to the Bronx last week. While the McMahon trade also involved a significant contract changing hands, Bird won’t cost the Yankees much financially. He’s in his final pre-arbitration season and controllable for three years after this. Bird doesn’t have any kind of closing experience that tends to lead to significant arbitration earnings for a reliever. He should be fairly cheap throughout the arbitration window.
The McMahon and Bird trades demonstrate that Colorado is more willing to deal controllable pieces than they’ve been in past seasons. They’re trending towards the worst season in modern history and have a tough time justifying making anyone untouchable. Riggio placed 22nd on Baseball America’s writeup of Yankee prospects, while he checked in 10th in the system at MLB Pipeline. Shields ranked 28th at MLB Pipeline and was not in the top 30 at BA. Both players will not be eligible for the Rule 5 draft until after the ’26 season.
Riggio, a left-handed hitting second baseman, has split the season between High-A and Double-A. He has put together a huge .264/.370/.567 slash between the two levels. Riggio has taken walks at a strong 12.2% clip while striking out at a league average 22.2% rate. He has drilled 18 home runs, 14 doubles and a triple. A fourth-round pick out of Oklahoma State in 2023, Riggio is viewed as a bat-first player. Scouting reports question his pure hitting ability, but there’s no question he’s putting together a huge statistical season in the minors.
Shields is a 6’4″ left-handed pitcher who went undrafted out of George Mason in 2023. Despite lacking amateur pedigree, Shields has put together a solid minor league résumé. He posted a 3.48 ERA in 26 minor league appearances a season ago. He missed the first few months of this season due to injury but has since returned to start five games with Double-A Somerset. He has turned in a 3.42 ERA with 26 strikeouts across 23 2/3 innings. Shields is already 26 and facing mostly younger competition, but MLB Pipeline credits him with a potential plus slider. He could be short-term rotation or long relief depth for the Rockies.
Jack Curry of The YES Network first reported the Yankees were acquiring Bird. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com had Colorado’s return.
Image courtesy of James A. Pittman, Imagn Images.
Just heard it on MLB radio!
The stove is burning my skin off!
5 minutes left!! It’s usually a flurry!
Greg next!
Bird is the word.
Odd thing is this guys home road splits are heavily skewed towards Coors. Might be a disaster in Yankee stadium.
4.73 ERA,,was a bad inning
That’s probably a 3.74 ERA at a normal park.
His FIP numbers are in the 3’s
He’s got a 7 era outside of Coors this year and a sub 3 era at home.
Going back and forth to different environments can be tough on their pitchers. There’s spin rate and movement differences
He’s the first guy ever to have way better numbers in Colorado than on the road. He’s limiting opponents to a .542 OPS in Coors Field and giving up .975 on the road. And for his whole four year career he’s actually significantly better at home than on the road. Would figure the Rockies would trade away the first pitcher to ever like playing there.
Roc is a Rocky!
So long as its not the Rock
Cool!
At least the Rockies are doing what terrible teams should do. Took them long enough.
Roc Riggio is the best possible name for a player on the Rockies.
Roc Riggio and Viktor Vodnik sound like a WWF tag team from the 80’s.
They were a tag team. They went by the name Vicious and Delicious and were managed by the GOAT Bobby “The Brain” Heenan.
Sounds like a bad alias used by Craig Biggio when he checks into Gentlemans clubs with Ref Ragwell
@DDT…. LOL! Best comment.
Lol who are the Yankees to stand in the way of destiny?
The Brewers recently dumped a guy named Brewer. So we will see if the destiny holds up over time hehe
The Rockies just flipped the Bird to the Yankees.
Stellar work good sir or ma’am
Pffff, Miller who?
Losing Riggio stings a little but he’s blocked in New York and Bird is controlled through 2028. Riggio should thrive in Colorado
He’s oddly pitched slightly better at home for his cateer.
If the Yankees gave up a good prospect for Bird, I trust that he’s a guy they think Matt Blake can fully unlock
I think he’ll be another polarizing Mark Leiter, Jr.- type.
Ybc that could indicate that he has built his approach around the unique coors effect on pitch movement etc and has not yet learned to adjust for other environments. Which in turn could make him something of a longer term upside project for Matt Blake to get into.
I was a fan of roc too, but he’s a bat first 2B only prospect who’s currently on the rise while blocked by jazz. I mean, i get it. Hope he’s in the majors in September. The rockies hsve absolutely no infielders in their org.
Damn sucks seeing roc go i liked him. Hope he rakes in Colorado. Bird is a nice pickup, we need strikeout guys
Hmm not bad!
Are the Red Sox going to do anything? Hello?
Matz?
Lol, they did exactly what they wanted to do get someone to take all of Devers contract so ownership could make even more money. Biggest joke of an ownership in baseball the last 4 years
Somehow this guy has actually pitched worse away from Coors this year and it’s not even close.
Is it good for baseball to see the rich constantly get richer, like needing four elite late inning arms? While garbage teams like the Rockies make no effort to improve and trade a young guy under team control?
The Rockies might lose 125 games this year.
Tbf Roc Riggio is a solid 2b prospect and fits the team name lol.
Team control isn’t the only criteria…..4.5 runs + ERA over his career…..only in the today’s world of analytics……hie ERA at Coors is terrible……you have to play 82 games at home…..they sold high……
Why is his ERA so high? I thought he was more reliable, is he? Reply with answers please. Also, Roc Riggio I feel is too much lose
Because he has given up a three run homer in like 5 of his last 7 appearances. He is going through a bad stretch since the break, but he was nearly unhittable before that. His ERA before the All Star break was well below 2.00.
He could actually pitch well at Coors Field and was still under team control through 2028. Yep this what Rockies fans put up with through their ownership and Front Office. It’s a clown show.
Well THIS Rockies fan has no problem seeing him depart. There is a reason he was only put in the game in the 5th or 6th inning. He did it well just long enough to get traded. I wish him well, but it was time to go.
Thank you for answering. This was helpful. I do not watch the Rockies or even pay attention to them, and barely knew who bird was
Oddly enough, I am the same way with almost every other team..including the Yankees. I watch about 156 Rockies games every year and maybe 5 games not involving them.
Oh, ok. I watch a lot of baseball too. When the yankees are off or the game is over, I watch other teams and am constantly watching MLB Network
I cannot stand the MLB Network guys. I just get my $150 MLBTV package each year and go with it. Not that much when you figure it to be about 3 hours a night for 6 months. You get the guarantee of listening to the actual team announcers that way so you actually learn about the players instead of just hearing the stats spouted.
I mainly watch it for recaps and highlights. Most of them have weird speculations. Some of them are ok, but I see what ur saying
I warned you about Bird and the homers. Sorry about your game tonight, but we are losing 16-10 as I type this.
Well, to be fair none of our new guys did well. Bednar struggles at loan depot park, bird gave up the grand slam, and doval gave up the walkoff. The only new yankee doing well is McMahon. He is a CRAZY defender
Oh yeah, you will love Mac. Even he will frustrate you when he goes into a funk and goes 0-30 at the plate. But the defense is still fantastic even when he can’t hit.. And when he does hit, he can look like an MVP candidate. I am just glad he is playing somewhere where people might actually notice him now.
Very true. He seems like a great team guy. He seems to be happy on a contending team. He fully deserves that. I have watched him play for the past couple months. Yankees did well at the deadline. Hopefully the new guys can straighten themselves out.
Jake is gonna need to trim that beard a little closer in NY. But at least he gets to keep it now!
Another one that the Rangers were supposedly in on, but the Yankees were willing to pay. It sucks when your owner goes cheap.
Seeing the price for him makes sense why Texas didn’t do it. Biggio and Shields is a quality haul for a reliever that really isn’t all that notable.
Riggio*
How so?
Steep prospect price for a middling reliever
Was thinking the same thing. Felt like Cash did well on the Bednar trade given the circumstances and then just blew his wad on a RP with a near 5 era?
Not steep average. Hard pitching in Colorado and NY can out develop them. Years of control.
Nice to see the Hartford Yard Goats dipping into their major league system to acquire some pitching for the stretch run.
Are the yankees going to get a starter? Our rotation isnt horrible, especially with Gil coming back. Stroman isnt the best pitcher, but not horrible.
I like the Roc Riggio pick up for the Rockies. He was of the top names I was hoping to pick up for obvious reasons. The other guy makes me wonder what the obsession is with 26 year old guys in AA. Are there no younger pitching prospects available?
Don’t sleep on riggio. Gonna smash the ball in denver.
Yeah that pull lefty fly ball swing plays at Coors. Exactly what you want there.
I hear in the right deal, you can trade Shields for Tatis Jr..
B COL. Reliever and maybe everyday 2b. Mot exciting but good for what they gave.
C NY fair enough. Reliever they can work with.
I am very unimpressed
Barring anything like another team checking in with the Yankees before completing a trade with some other team, so they’re probably done at this point.
I feel like if nothing else gets done, for once, Cashman deserves a bit of credit for a solid, if unspectacular deadline.
I think McMahon is already paying dues and paying off and hopefully he’ll be another Scott Brosius type, but then he also got some right handed depth with Rosario and grabbed Austin Slater in wake of Judge being hurt. Then today he added a solid middle reliever and the best bullpen arm the Pirates had. All without giving up any real banner prospects
I know it’s gonna take more than that to move the needle but I don’t think the needle needs much movement, just consistent play and a bullpen that can hold a lead most of the time.
Either way, most years were all here posting that meme of the figure poking something with a stick saying “do something”, might as well try to be positive and hopeful about him making moves this year.
Agreed. These were solid moves for nom-rental, high-strikeout relievers. The team has much more ovetall depth now. No significant prospects were traded away. Cashman even got something back for Peraza who is on the DFA bubble. A lot is going to ride on how Luis Gil comes back.
Damn I wanted bird for the m’s
Nice! The Yankees aren’t the Yankees without at least one Bird on their roster.