Yankees' bullpen problem came to life much faster than fans could've imagined

We knew it was coming. We knew the New York Yankees hadn't done enough. We had seen one-off instances throughout the regular season. And now, we've seen the bullpen become a real problem. In what should have been a chance to beat up on the hapless New York Mets, we instead see the Yankees drop the series against their crosstown rival.

In the middle game of the set, an inefficient Carlos Rodón certainly didn't help himself, but after 3 2/3 laborious innings he left the game with the Yankees still in it. That is, until the trio of Jake Bird, Brent Headrick, and Tim Hill each gave up a run, and the offense was unable to pick them up despite ample opportunities.

Things got even worse on the May 17 finale. With a three-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, David Bednar couldn't pull out another one of his far-too-common Houdini-esque escapes. After getting into a second and third jam with two outs, he served up a three-run homer to Tyrone Taylor, a man who came into the day hitting just .182/.203/.286.

In the bottom of the 10th, Tim Hill would induce a weak ground ball off of Carson Benge's bat, which normally would have been a good result, but instead proved to be the game-winner, thanks to the ghost runner advancing to third earlier in the inning.

That brings to light a bigger problem with New York's relief corps. There simply isn't enough strikeout stuff in the unit, allowing for things to unravel both slowly and tragically.

Walks, a lack of strikeouts, and a lack of depth are all Yankees bullpen problems

Not having a single reliever in the top 50 in K-BB% is alarming and is the type of inefficiency that allows for meltdowns and the "death-by-1000-paper cuts" unravellings we've seen at times. The free passes set the scene for otherwise weakly hit grounders and bloopers to find their way into open space, bleeding runs in the process.

The Yankees' bullpen doesn't possess much in the way of high-octane stuff. Those who do, have proven to be unreliable at best. It's a reason why many have been clamoring for some of the exciting young arms racking up strikeouts down in the minors to get a call.

That might help mitigate the situation, but it won't eliminate it completely. The club will have to make one or more trade deadline acquisitions to remedy the issue beyond a shadow of a doubt. Until then, the issue of blowing leads will continue.

That brings up another big issue with the 'pen. Those who have been good and heavily relied upon are now providing diminishing returns, buckling under the weight of the early workload. Things will only get worse and not better as the season marches on.

Finally, that means the team is not equipped to handle short outings from the starters. The Subway Series provided a prime example of that. In the opener, Cam Schlittler pitched into the seventh, and the Yankees hung on for the victory. Even though Rodón only went 3 2/3 in the middle game, and Elmer Rodriguez could only manage 4 1/3 frames, both left with the Yankees still having a decent shot at securing the win.

The starting rotation has been fantastic for most of the season; however, there will be adversity. We've already seen some with Max Fried's injury. More will undoubtedly come. The bullpen, as currently constructed, is not equipped to pick the team up should a starter falter. The K-BB ratio is a big reason why. Too many walks and not enough strikeouts mean that over prolonged periods they'll be exposed. We just saw it, and until it's addressed, it will keep happening.

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