Yankees admit defeat with offseason Dodgers trade after latest roster move

And here comes the bullpen shuffle! The New York Yankees knew they had to do something after burning through the unit over the last week, and there was no way they could keep letting these lackluster performances persist from experienced veterans.

Victor Gonzalez was the latest casualty to follow Dennis Santana out the door. The left-hander was designated for assignment on Friday before the series opener against the Atlanta Braves.

Gonzalez will probably be best remembered for plunking Gunnar Henderson on Wednesday, which led to the Orioles' game-winning run. Maybe Baltimore fans can calm down since it's highy unlikely the Yankees used Gonzalez to get retribution for Aaron Judge's HBP, then lose the game, then DFA one of their few lefty relievers.

That wasn't all for the team's transactions, though. After Thursday's game, Ron Marinaccio was optioned back to Triple-A, which left an open spot on the roster. The Yankees also signed Tim Hill that morning to help get more bodies in the 'pen.

In addition to Gonzalez's DFA on Friday, New York signed another former Dodger in Phil Bickford and recalled prospect Yoendrys Gomez (YoGo).

Yankees admit defeat with offseason Dodgers trade after latest roster move

Gonzalez was supposed to be a key high-leverage lefty option for the Yankees, but instead he was underwhelming (even if his stats didn't look too bad). The 28-year-old owned a 3.86 ERA and 1.14 WHIP with only 11 strikeouts in 23 1/3 innings of work.

The problem? Outside of his ground ball rate, his peripheral metrics are awful. He's among the worst in MLB in getting stikeouts and issuing walks. His expected ERA was also quite bad (right in line with his 5.93 FIP).

Also, most of his outings came in low-leverage situations, where he was successful (when he was supposed to be). Whenever he was placed in a pressure-filled moment, he imploded (he allowed a .313 AVG and .889 OPS in 18 high-leverage plate appearances).

Though Bickford hasn't pitched in the bigs this season, he's a fresh arm that can help the Yankees chug along at the moment. As for Gomez, he deserves more run at the big-league level after proving he can get the job done at Triple-A (3.13 ERA and 1.17 WHIP with 54 strikeouts in 12 starts).

Good thing the Yankees got Jorbit Vivas in that offseason Gonzalez trade with the Dodgers, or else that Trey Sweeney departure would be looking a whole lot worse right about now.