Yankees option Jonathan Loaisiga to Triple-A, activate A.J. Cole

Well, that was fast. Following tonight’s loss to the Braves, the Yankees optioned Jonathan Loaisiga to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. A.J. Cole has been activated from the disabled list as the corresponding move. Aaron Boone indicated that Loaisiga could return for next Monday’s doubleheader versus the Orioles. It is unclear what the Yankees plan to do to cover Masahiro Tanaka’s rotation spot in the meantime.

Loaisiga, 23, labored against the Braves on Monday night. He ran up several long at-bats that did damage to his pitch count. Johnny Lasagna lasted just four innings, allowing three runs on five hits. The decisive blow came in the form of a Johan Camargo home run.

The right-hander has pitched to a 3.00 ERA over 18 innings pitched. He’s the owner of 2.83 FIP and a 10.50 K/9 rate. While he had success at the big league level, it always felt that he was in a little too far over his head. His stuff played up great, but he had very little margin for error. That makes sense considering he only logged 25 innings at the Double-A level before joining the Yankees’ rotation.

Cole, on the other hand, returns to the Yankees following a short stint on the disabled list. His 2018 numbers don’t look great on the surface — 6.17 ERA and 6.41 FIP — but he found a surprising amount of success in New York. He’s pitched to a 0.69 ERA (3.19 FIP) across 13 innings in pinstripes. He demonstrated a unique ability to pitch well despite long stretches of inactivity.