Yankees' attempt at bullpen support backfires after Triple-A release is confirmed

When the New York Yankees decided to take a flyer on a veteran reliever clearly on the back nine of his career this past offseason, we at least understood the thought process. No harm in getting some experience in the back end of the bullpen at a low cost.

Not to mention, the signing — Rafael Montero — saw an uptick in his production during the second half of 2025 with the Detroit Tigers. Something was there. It may not have been his 2019 or 2022 form, but it would've been additive.

Fast forward to Aug. 10, though, and the experiment never took off. Montero was released by the Scranton RailRiders after a season that was nothing short of a disaster.

First, the right-hander was delayed in getting to the Yankees due to visa issues, which happened to him on multiple occasions during his tenure with the Astros. Then, he didn't appear in a Triple-A game until April 26.

He's since pitched in a total of 28 games (27 innings) and owned a 5.67 ERA and 1.70 WHIP before his release. Objectively bad, even if he managed 33 strikeouts. He was allowing 11 hits and four walks per nine innings.

Yankees' Triple-A affiliate releases veteran reliever Rafael Montero as bullpen help thins

We've discussed, at length, the Yankees' problematic trade deadline that featured no pitching additions. In fact, it featured THREE subtractions in Camilo Doval, Jake Bird and Yovanny Cruz. While it was refreshing to see Doval and Bird go, Cruz was at least proving he could be a contributor. But more importantly, the herd has thinned overall and the unit continues to be taxed.

Nobody was necessarily expecting Montero to make an outsized impact, but we sure would have signed off on him eating some innings in August and September as the team did its best to give the most trusted bullpen arms a breather when the opportunity arose.

Montero's release isn't anything to rage about, but it's important to remember very few of the Yankees' moves at the margins have worked. Brent Headrick has been a success, but let's not forget they traded TJ Rumfield for Angel Chivilli and made Cade Winquest their first Rule 5 Draft pick in 15 years. The Yankees hit on a lot, but they also miss on a lot.

And those misses are rarely ever rectified despite the endless resources one of the wealthiest sports franchises in the world has to offer. It might feel like a meaningless move, but represents a much larger problem. And it's a reminder that the reinforcements we are looking at down the stretch feature injured players who have seen little to no action this year (Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt, Luis Gil) or somebody you probably haven't heard of. But we'll say a prayer it all holds up.

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