Yankees claim underrated ex-Red Sox bullpen option from Royals ahead of September call-ups

After a few weeks of taking oddball bullpen flyers, the New York Yankees have finally made a slightly larger post-trade deadline maneuver in an attempt to address their bullpen.

John Schreiber, formerly of the Boston Red Sox and most recently of the Kansas City Royals, will head to the Yankees in the middle of a pretty strong season with KC. Schreiber, the side-winder who Boston stole and squeezed a 2.22 ERA out of in 64 games back in 2022, hasn't posted an ERA above 4.00 or below 3.00 since that campaign. This year, in 55 games, he's got a 3.65 ERA and 114 ERA+, though his 4.87 FIP indicates he's had luck on his side.

Mostly, it's been a typical year for Schreiber, and it's somewhat surprising he became the lone casualty of the Royals' awful-until-the-last-few-weeks-and-now-kinda-interesting season down the stretch.

The Yankees just claimed a potentially viable playoff bullpen piece. But ... where does he fit right now?

John Schreiber joining Yankees shouldn't mean the end of Michael Fulmer's tenure

Against all odds, the Yankees have ... actually stacked a bunch of viable bullpen options up against one another for the first time in a while. The roster math now creates a conundrum — which is better than open season on an undermanned unit, but is still a little confusing.

Luis Gil was promoted on Sunday and Yerry de los Santos was demoted; however, Gil wasn't needed to soak up any innings in the cathartic laugher than followed. Gil's now, somehow, the last man in the bullpen alongside Ryan Yarbrough. Justin Topa was DFA'd to make room for Max Fried's roster spot on Saturday evening. Without either a real or phantom IL move (Brent Headrick?), the Yankees should probably wait one day to add Schreiber to the active roster and retain all their current pieces — including Michael Fulmer, who's long been a Cashman White Whale and showed a degree of promise against the Astros last week.

If and when Clarke Schmidt returns from injury, that creates a separate issue. Maybe Gil is demoted again. Maybe Aaron Judge comes with a corresponding DFA. For now, expanding the roster with Schreiber and Mitch Garver, then DFA'ing whichever backup catcher looks worse when Judge returns feels like the right way to handle it.

Fulmer may bear the brunt of the roster churn unfairly, though.

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