For the fourth time this season, Michael Tonkin has been designated for assignment, but this one followed a stretch of consistency.
Behind 45 appearances with the Braves last year and 65 with the Twins in 2016, this was Tonkin’s third-longest stretch of time in the majors across his career.
So it was a “tough one,” manager Aaron Boone said, but with Boone feeling as if the Yankees could be short on relievers in the present, they opted to DFA the 34-year-old reliever — who’d posted a 3.38 ERA across 39 appearances since signing in April — and brought up right-handed reliever Phil Bickford from Triple-A.He appeared in five games at the end of June and his ERA ballooned to 14.40, but in 34 appearances with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he has pitched to a 3.00 ERA and picked up five saves.
Bickford was with Scranton for their road series against St. Paul, last pitching in a game Aug. 21, and he flew to join the Yankees on Sunday before they closed a three-game set against the Rockies at Yankee Stadium and traveled for a series vs. the Nationals.“He’s been doing a nice job,” Boone said of Bickford, “and he’s got some length to him. Probably can give us a couple innings if we needed it. … There was a number of people in the conversation for that but right now, seemed like the right guy to take.”
