Yankees fans rejoice after Bombers promote fan favorite before Rays showdown

The Yankees explored the limits of burning and churning long relievers during their three-game sweep over the Oakland A's, demoting three hurlers in three days to protect the bullpen's more crucial assets.

Needless to say, based on the way they've reacted, fans are hoping the team's fourth attempt to find a long-term long reliever is the charm.

After Nick Ramirez handled the final two innings of a 7-2 win on Monday, he was demoted in favor of high-upside Greg Weissert for Game 2. Unfortunately, Weissert struggled to record his outs efficiently and boosted himself far above the pitch count the Yankees had envisioned for him. That resulted in the Yankees promoting a third member of their 40-man on Wednesday, leading to the long-awaited return of Deivi Garcia (for his first ever Yankee Stadium appearance with fans, post-pandemic season!).

Garcia ably covered the final three innings of Wednesday's sweep clincher, but he took himself out of the running to remain on the roster by doing the job effectively. Sorry, man. He should be back.

For the Yankees' fourth try in as many days, they've decided to take the plunge and place Jonathan Loaisiga on the 60-Day IL, clearing up a precious 40-man roster spot. Not for Colten Brewer, as some anticipated, but rather for ... Ryan Weber, otherwise known as the soft-throwing, strange-slinging WebDog.

Yankees send Jonathan Loaisiga to 60-Day IL, promote Ryan Weber

Some of the 2022 Yankees' happiest times were when WebDog was on the mound, so for the vibes calculus, this move feels extremely important.

The ex-Red Sox with the unorthodox style and fastball that would struggle to break glass managed to navigate trouble and allow only a single earned run in 10.1 innings of work last season, striking out just 3 and finishing with a 4.05 FIP.

He'll test his luck once more the next time the Yankees are either way up or way down. Or ... maybe there's a third, innovative solution?

Weber's Triple-A numbers have been lacking this season (5.77 ERA in 34.1 innings pitched), but the Yankees know exactly what they're getting here.

The chorus of "WEBDOG!" in their Twitter replies surely indicates fan approval, too.

It never hurts to help the vibes, right?