Yankees pull off another trade with Dodgers and deal 2023 surprise reliever to LA

The 2024 New York Yankees are positively addicted to trading with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Who knows why? Maybe the two sides match up well and feel comfortable solving one another's problems. Maybe it's all residual from the Joey Gallo/Clayton Beeter trade.

Regardless, the Dodgers came to the rescue again on Tuesday evening in their ongoing search to complete their bullpen. Just like they were back in December when the Dodgers needed some 40-man players taken off their hands (thanks for Victor González and Jorbit Vivas!), the Yankees were happy to oblige.

New York was surprisingly willing to ditch left-hander Nick Ramirez last week as part of the roster shuffle that brought Tanner Tully temporarily to the big leagues (and knocked Beeter down to Scranton). Ramirez has sort of a baffling throwback arsenal, and it was somewhat unclear how it kept working in 2023, but it certainly did. He filled the Lucas Luetge role with aplomb, posting a 2.66 ERA in 40 2/3 innings (guarantee that number is lower than you thought it was).

Now, he'll head to the Dodgers, who are reeling somewhat (somewhat, not really) after losing Brusdar Graterol for longer than expected. Ramirez can't fire fastballs at 100+ MPH, but he can at least absorb some of the other innings they've lost by dealing González/Caleb Ferguson to ... the Yankees. What a tangled web these two teams are already weaving.

Yankees trade lefty reliever Nick Ramirez to Los Angeles Dodgers for cash

Hopefully, Cash Considerations has nastier stuff than Jake Cousins, because we're just about ready to end that experiment after Tuesday night.

The Yankees expanded their Triple-A reliever pipeline this week, adding Cousins, a rehabbing JT Brubaker and Phil Bickford while waiting for Tommy Kahnle's shoulder to bounce back. It seems they were more comfortable relying on any of those arms rather than bringing Ramirez back to the bigs, and so the Yankees' and Dodgers' cosmic ballet continues.

Hopefully, this entanglement ends with the two teams facing off in another World Series, their first postseason matchup since 1981. Or, better yet, maybe the Yankees can make the World Series and face someone way worse! Yeah, scratch the "Dodgers" thing, that'd be way better.