Yankees getting burned as emergency bullpen option still hasn't reported to Tampa

The New York Yankees' bullpen situation, to little surprise, is looking bleak. The middling additions they made this offseason have not panned out during spring training, and it doesn't appear if there's much depth to properly make up for their malfeasance.

Cade Winquest and Angel Chivilli have been awful. Jake Bird has rebounded nicely, but most fans will believe it when they see it once the season starts. Camilo Doval has made one appearance and gave up a home run. We suspect David Bednar, Fernando Cruz and Tim Hill will be fine, but other than that? Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn are better suited to make spot starts or serve in long relief. They are not high-leverage options.

There's always the possibility Ryan Weathers is utilized in such a role. Given his injury history and impressive velocity, he profiles better as a back-end reliever rather than a starter, especially with all the depth the Yankees have in their rotation.

But again, that's not an ironclad option for the Yankees. They have few of those. And one of the veteran options who was ostensibly signed to a minor league contract and was expected to potentially alleviate some of the burden with the lack of stability/experience still hasn't arrived to camp.

Rafael Montero is having visa issues, which was last reported on March 6. At that point, manager Aaron Boone hadn't "heard an update in the last several days." It is now March 12.

Yankees reliever Rafael Montero could be factored out of plans after visa issues

Bryan Hoch first reported this on Feb. 19. That was three weeks ago. There is next to no chance Montero will be ready for Opening Day if was even being considered for a bullpen role to begin the season.

This is nothing new for the right-hander, unfortunately. With the Astros in 2023 and 2025, he was delayed getting to camp for the same exact reason. There have been no details as to why this has continued to happen. Even attempts to dig up old Astros news have yielded nothing except vague explanations.

If the Yankees were serious about Montero being a veteran option to help out at the onset of 2026 or as insurance to protect against Winquest/Chivilli/Bird stumbles, they needed to look no further than what happened with him in Houston in 2023 and 2025. If they are relying on him to log some reps at Triple-A and then help out later in the season, then this isn't that big of a deal whatsoever.

But this is just another indicator that the bullpen is woefully incomplete and there will be a lot of "figuring it out" across April and May. It just feels a bit worse after the early returns from underwhelming options, in addition to Montero's situation being completely out of the team's control.