Yankees trade may pay delayed dividends in 2026

Jake Bird did not hit the ground running with the New York Yankees.

He was one of the relief pitchers the Yanks acquired at last season's trade deadline, coming over from the Colorado Rockies with a lot of reasons to believe in him. And then he got shelled.

The good news for the Yankees and Bird, though, is that he's still with their organization. He has a shot at redemption.

MLB.com's Bryan Hoch goes so far as to predict Bird as the ideal dark horse to find his way onto the Opening Day roster.

"Bird allowed seven runs (six earned) in two innings after being acquired from the Rockies last July, then spent the rest of the year in Triple-A," Hoch writes. "That wasn’t the best first impression, but the 30-year-old looks different early in camp, crediting a full offseason working with the Yankees' pitching department. If he continues to generate ground balls and whiffs, Bird could be a nice bullpen find."

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That had been of a surprisingly bad small sample size for Bird.

He had a 4.73 ERA with the Rockies before being traded to the Bronx, which you'd think is at least a little inflated by playing at Coors Field. Bird was also striking out 10.5 batters per nine innings in 2025.

His strikeout metrics last season were by far the best of his career, so the fear for Yankees fans would be that he was pitching over his head and simply regressed to who he had been before.

Bird was desired by more than just the Yanks at the deadline, though. Teams believe in his stuff.

He very well could prove to be a solid acquisition for New York, just with a bit of a delay in the return on investment.

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