Electric prospect Yankees lost in ill-fated Jake Bird trade hit the same stumbling block

The worst part of the New York Yankees' deadline trade for Rockies reliever Jake Bird wasn't that they acquired Rockies reliever Jake Bird. It was that they surrendered real assets to receive him, midway through a season in which he'd gotten his arm run ragged in seemingly every high-leverage situation Colorado faced at high altitude.

Bird was a run-down fireman in need of an arsenal makeover, and by the time he got to New York, he had no time on the clock to figure how how to become the "new him"; the Yankees were in a pennant race, and he bungled two games in three appearances before being demoted.

Now, he's in the high minors again after a dreadful performance/Mike Trout game-tying three-run shot in Monday's miraculous Yankees win in the Bronx. And the top-10-in-the-system prospect he was traded for, slugging second baseman Roc Riggio? Somehow, he's been hit by the same affliction that's wiped Bird off the windshield.

In his first eight games of the season back down with Double-A Hartford, Riggio is 2-for-26 with a double and an RBI. His sweet and aggressive left-handed power swing popped 11 homers in 40 games with Double-A Somerset last season, but his OPS dropped 140 points when he switched sides last summer. He's yet to recover this year.

Oh, right, the Yankees also traded Ben Shields for Jake Bird. How's he doing?

There is no "victory-lapping" a trade that's become as noxious as the Bird swap. There's merely "damage control".

Shields looked like a solid innings eater at worst in the Yankees' system last year, and shined on Colorado's farm, posting a 2.33 ERA in five starts with Hartford, whiffing 24 men in 19 1/3 innings pitched. And then, because he's part of the Jake Bird trade, of course, things went sour. Shields was placed on the 60-Day Injured List on April 1 ahead of Hartford's season, and no further information has been released regarding his status. Unfortunately, this is the second straight year he's stumbled onto the 60-Day.

Riggio is probably the last, best hope for someone to emerge from this trade sludge and redeem it. The Yankees, preferring to use their trade assets to improve the bullpen rather than sign established stars, have instead depleted their farm to make the 'pen much, much worse. Someone must now step in and clean up the problem Bird was supposed to solve, while Riggio seeks some hidden solution to clear a path to Denver's thin air.

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