Yankees place Darren O’Day on injured list with hamstring strain, recall Nick Nelson

The Yankees came so close to having all members of their originally planned bullpen on the roster at once. However, Zack Britton returned the injured list just before the returns of Darren O’Day and Justin Wilson, and now, O’Day will be going back to the IL as well.

Prior to Tuesday night’s game in Seattle, the Yankees announced that O’Day would hit the 10-day IL with a hamstring strain. After a promising start to the season in April, O’Day was out for almost all of May and June recovering from a rotator cuff strain, though he returned to the club on June 29th.

Unfortunately, it was a brief two-game cameo and now the 38-year-old O’Day is back to the rehab trail while Wilson continues to look bad and the Yankees put a patch over the O’Day void with Nick Nelson, who was recalled to fill the roster spot. As a reminder, Nelson has a 9.75 ERA and 1.92 WHIP in eight games in The Show this year. He has a 2.58 FIP and has pitched better in the minors (2.73 ERA and 1.18 WHIP in 11 games), but I’m hardly comforted by that.

Remember when the Yankees thought they were making a sneaky good “double addition” by salary dumping Adam Ottavino on the Red Sox to sign O’Day and Wilson? And lost Garrett Whitlock in the Rule 5 Draft because Brooks Kriske was worth keeping over him? Oopsies.

Ideally, Nelson doesn’t pitch in an important spot, but given how shaky the Yankees’ bullpen has been of late outside of Chad Green and Jonathan Loaisiga, I’m already fearing it.