Around the Empire: Yankees news - 10/2/22

New York Post | Greg Joyce: Zack Britton worked his tail off to get back to the majors in the hopes of contributing to some postseason success for the Yankees, but unfortunately it just wasn’t meant to be. After a disastrous appearance on Friday night ended with Britton walking off the field with the team trainer, he has been put on the 60-day IL with shoulder fatigue, effectively ending both his season and his Yankees career. It’s always hard to watch a guy’s body fail him, but it’s especially difficult to watch when it happens to one of the best relievers of the last decade or so. At this stage in his career, too, questions start to swirl about whether he will be able to return, or if this’ll be it. For his sake, I hope Friday night’s wild pitch isn’t the last he throws on a baseball field. He’s had too good of a career to go out like that.

MLB Trade Rumors | Anthony Franco: When the year-end Sporcle quiz goes around that asks you to identify all of the players who made an appearance for the Yankees this season, I imagine this will be the one that stumps a lot of people. With Britton going to the IL with season-ending shoulder fatigue and Clay Holmes on the shelf until the postseason, the Yankees selected the contract of Jacob Barnes. The Yankees are his third different team in 2022, after struggling with the Detroit Tigers and a brief stint with the Seattle Mariners. Barnes’ season hasn’t been anything to write home about — he pitched to a 6.10 ERA in 20.2 innings with Detroit — but he’s posted eight solid innings in Triple-A since being signed to a minor league deal in August, so I guess that’s something.

(Update: Barnes pitched 1.2 innings in the 8-0 win on Saturday but his stay on the roster was brief; he was designated for assignment to make room for Sunday starter Chi Chi González.)

Audacy | Ryan Chichester: Domingo Germán has pitched quite nicely since finding himself back in the starting rotation. When it comes to the playoffs, though, it appears as though the Yankees may want to use Germán as a long-man out of the bullpen. And, according to Germán himself, he’s up for the challenge. His expected stats are a little concerning from this vantage point, but you can never have too many arms come playoff time, and his recent stretch of games has more or less made him deserving of a postseason roster spot.