NEW YORK — Back in the 1980s when players would constantly go between the majors and minors, it was jokingly referred to as flying the “Columbus Shuttle”.
This year if you’re a Yankees reliever, chances are you’ve been participating in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre car pool.
Through 70 games this season, the Yankees have recalled 12 pitchers from their Triple-A affiliate and that does not include Chasen Shreve, Chris Martin and Chris Capuano, who were either on the opening day roster or began the season on the disabled list.
The latest two pitchers to make the roughly three-hour trip from Northeast Pennsylvania to the Bronx were right-handers Diego Moreno and Nick Rumbelow, who had their contracts purchased before Monday’s 11-8 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Which means that once again, manager Joe Girardi was explaining the transaction as wanting to get some fresh arms in his bullpen. If you’re scoring at home, the newest relievers take the place of right-hander Danny Burawa, who threw two days in a row, and left-hander Jose De Paula, who threw 66 pitches in his major league debut Sunday.
“The one thing that we want to keep is fresh arms and we’ve been rotating them through,” Girardi said.
If they get into a game, they will become the 21st and 22nd pitchers that the Yankees have used in June. Not including September callups that is New York’s most since using 19 in July 2005 and April 2014.
“I think the challenge it presents is you want guys to be comfortable in their roles and that’s a tough way to go about the game because of some of our concerns about the length we can get,” Girardi said. “It doesn’t mean we don’t believe in them. We’re doing it to protect the arms of everybody. The challenges are maybe finding a role for a couple of guys. We’re kind of settled in on who our seventh, eighth, ninth guy is and we’ve looked for a right-hander to help us in those situations and that has been ever-changing.”
Not including using outfielder Garrett Jones in a blowout loss to the Texas Rangers on May 23, Moreno became the 19th reliever used by the Yankees and Rumbelow will become the 20th if and when he appears.
While constant change can be considered a negative, the positive is that the Yankees have enough arms in the minors that they view worthy of a promotion.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Girardi said. “I think it speaks highly about our system that guys are starting to rise through the ranks are really close or in some cases they’re pretty much ready.”
Out of all those transactions, only three have had multiple call-ups and, out of Branden Pinder, Jose Ramirez and Bryan Mitchell, only Pinder has managed to stay for more than a week. Pinder’s first stint lasted April 15-21 but his second one lasted May 9-24 and then he was recalled June 9.
The Yankees have had one player even go through four different transaction types and that was Matt Tracy. Tracy was the first pitcher recalled on April 11 when the Yankees needed a fresh arm after playing 19 innings against the Boston Red Sox. He was designated for assignment the following day, claimed by the Miami Marlins a few days later and re-claimed by the Yankees on April 18 before returning to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on April 22.