Yankees must DFA pitcher who continues to kill them after series loss to Rays

Once upon a time, the idea of Carlos Carrasco was underwhelming, but it definitely wasn't anything to lose sleep over. The New York Yankees needed depth, so they signed the veteran righty as an emergency option.

In an unexpected turn of events, however, Carrasco pretty much started the season in the Yankees' rotation. The results have been mixed — even though fans who are much more frustrated might say otherwise — but the nature of the rollercoaster experience just isn't conducive to helping the rotation find consistency.

With all of Gerrit Cole, Clarke Schmidt, Marcus Stroman and Luis Gil injured, the Yankees are relying on Max Fried and Carlos Rodón to carry the load. That's a tall task, especially when every other arm behind them is either injury prone or susceptible to a meltdown on any given night.

Fans have been rightfully frustrated with Will Warren, whose previous top prospect pedigree provided hope. But he's also just 25 years old and probably deserves more time to get over his struggles. Like Carrasco, Warren was never supposed to be in the rotation, so it's not like he's failing to deliver in a role he was tasked with since day one.

But as for Carrasco ... this is a 16-year veteran in his age-38 season who has been worse than Warren. Heading into Sunday's game, he had already subtracted -0.4 WAR from the Yankees, and then he was called upon in relief to further put the game out of reach.

Carrasco allowed two earned runs on five hits and a walk in three innings. He did a nice job eating innings to help out in a relief appearance with the bullpen gassed, but he couldn't handle a weak Rays lineup in limited work after his poor showing against the Orioles.

In a vacuum, two runs in three innings isn't the end of the world, but the Yankees staged a bit of a comeback in the eighth to pull within two. Had Carrasco not immediately gagged upon appearing in the seventh inning, the Yankees would've tied the game. A veteran of 16 seasons should, at the very least, he able to handle garbage time (the Yankees were down 5-2 with little offensive hope on their side) against one of the worst offenses in the league, even if it was on short rest.

There's just no way the Yankees can sit here with a straight face and tell fans they can't find a better, less volatile option than Carrasco to aid the pitching staff. There's not a single advanced metric that helps Carrasco's case, either. He's just not effective, and he's nothing more than roster filler at this point. Sure, there's value in someone like him erasing meaningless innings to preserve the bullpen, but the Yankees aren't really in a position to employ such a role at this moment with how decimated their pitching staff is.

It's time to DFA Carrasco and pick somebody — anybody — else up at this point to see if they can at least catch lightning in a bottle with another option until they can get healthier.