The Yankees were bound to send one of their relievers packing to make room for Masahiro Tanaka on the roster before Wednesday's game, but the belief was that they would send Jacob Lindgren back to Triple-A. Lindgren is another lefty in a bullpen full of them, and the Yankees could safely return him to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre without losing anyone in the process. However, instead of making a move that would cause them to lose a good reliever, the Yankees smartly sent another, less good reliever packing. The David Carpenter era is over in New York.
After disappointing outing after disappointing outing, the Yankees finally decided to cut ties with the reliever that they traded Manny Banuelos to Atlanta for. It seemed early on that Carpenter wasn't among the most trusted in the bullpen, but when he was trusted it usually went badly. He racked up a 4.82 ERA in 18.2 innings, and FIP says he somehow should have been even worse. The results were simply not there and the Yankees have clearly seen enough.
Carpenter will almost certainly catch on somewhere else after coming off a successful stint in Atlanta. For whatever reason, that success did not carry over to New York. The Yankees can still hang their hats on the fact that Chasen Shreve, the other part of the trade with Atlanta, has proven himself to be a valuable bullpen asset so far this year. At least everything wasn't all for nothing.
Dellin Betances is now the only true right-handed reliever the Yankees have. Esmil Rogers is also right-handed, but is more of a mop up long reliever than a one-inning type that can be relied on. Obviously a lot of those lefties in the bullpen are able to neutralize right-handers instead of just being pure LOOGY types. Doesn't matter which hand you pitch with when you can get batters out on both sides of the plate.
The Yankees bullpen got a little better today. The team made the right decision in cutting Carpenter instead of getting rid of Lindgren. Hey, maybe they are learning.