By admin 
You’d probably get a wide variety of answers if you asked a group of New York Yankees fans what the best bullpen configuration is for the postseason, but with the rather shallow pool of options due to a lack of reinforcements at the trade deadline and with injuries, there’s a good chance Yerry De Los Santos would be somewhere in there.
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As someone who’s ridden the Scranton shuttle up and down for the past two years, De Los Santos has gotten a bunch of opportunities to be a mid-inning bridge for the starters and the back-end relievers, one that he’s been sneakily good at.
Despite his good performance, roster math has routinely pushed him back to Triple-A. He last appeared in the bigs in late August, being demoted on the 30th as part of a roster churn to get fresh arms on the roster. With several arms on the roster that De Los Santos could probably outperform, some are wondering why he’s still in the minor leagues.
Due to some little-known MLB rules and procedures, the Yankees seem to have accidentally handcuffed themselves with one of their better minor-league options, something that may hurt them in crucial middle-relief innings.
Yerry De Los Santos’ sneakily effective performance
He hasn’t had many leverage situations, but some of the most sneakily valuable parts of any bullpen are the innings eaters. Think of Michael Tonkin and Lucas Luetge in recent years. De Los Santos hasn’t quite been at their level with just 55.2 total innings as a Yankee, but he’s done well when he’s pitched.
In 40 total outings as a Yankee, he’s posted a 2.59 ERA and 3.68 FIP, with those numbers getting considerably better in his 15 appearances this season. He wasn’t needed much before the trade deadline, but after the organization took a sledgehammer to its bullpen depth by acquiring Luis García Jr., he tossed 11.2 innings in varying leverage situations and performed very well.
Plenty of better examples exist, but his strong performance has continued an organizational trend of getting good innings out of guys who come out of nowhere. De Los Santos had 50 solid innings of big-league experience with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2022-23, but was forced to sign a minor league deal with the Yankees in 2024, where he spent his entire first season in Triple-A.
So why is this guy still in the minors while projects like Luis Gil and Bradley Hanner populate the bullpen? It comes down to an organizational miscue and an obscure MLB rule.
Why Yerry De Los Santos is still in Triple-A
When the Yankees sent down Jasson Domínguez on Thursday, many wondered why Hanner came up instead of De Los Santos. The reason for that was quite simple: teams are not allowed to recall optioned players for 15 days, with the lone exceptions being a doubleheader or replacing an injured player.
The 28-year-old reliever was sent down on August 30 after pitching in both legs of the team’s August 29 doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox for a fresh arm in Luis Gil, something the team viewed as necessary with Will Warren starting the series finale and the lack of an off-day before the subsequent West Coast trip. Of course, Warren went seven innings in a blowout victory, hence rendering the move unnecessary.
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With that, the Yankees were stuck. With De Los Santos not being eligible to be recalled until Sunday, and with Clarke Schmidt’s impending return, it’s unlikely he gets recalled for one specific game.
Now, there was an injured player and, by default, a workaround with Jazz Chisholm Jr. going down with injury last Wednesday, but the Yankees elected to make the swap with Anthony Volpe due to Aaron Judge’s planned off day necessitating Domínguez to stay on the roster a day longer. But even if the Yankees used this opportunity to get De Los Santos back up, they’d be stuck in a bind soon enough.
Returning relievers could squeeze De Los Santos out of New York’s 2026 plans
Schmidt is currently due to return on Monday from his rehab assignment, with the obvious corresponding move to be for the fledgling Hanner. While there’s still a way to go with his rehab, converted starter Ryan Weathers is also on track to return before the end of the regular season, which would necessitate another roster move.
Such a move could be Gil, which would’ve been De los Santos’ roster spot. So you might ask, why not recall De Los Santos along with Schmidt and replace both guys to create a better bullpen? The answer is that we get to one of the more obscure MLB rules.
As part of a compromise in the latest CBA in 2022, the MLB instituted a new rule regarding optioning players to the minor leagues. In each of a player’s three option years, a player can only be optioned back to the minors five times before being placed on waivers. As of the time of writing, De Los Santos has been optioned five times this season.
That means that if the Yankees need De Los Santos again (not counting using him as a 29th man in next week’s doubleheader against Tampa), they have to keep him on the active roster for the remainder of the season or expose him to waivers, in which he will undoubtedly be claimed due to his optionability and experience.
It’s an unfortunate reality, but one that was preventable. There’s a way De Los Santos returns to the Bronx this season, but it would likely require an injury that impacts the team’s ability to field a competent bullpen in October.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/yankees/onsi as How Yankees’ Yerry De Los Santos Miscue Has Come Back to Haunt Bullpen.
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This story was originally published September 14, 2026 at 10:00 AM.