Hyde on bullpen, Valdez and baseball's unwritten rule

A bullpen that surrendered 25 earned runs in 34 innings on the homestand, and needed utility player Stevie Wilkerson to cover the ninth yesterday, won't undergo any changes in the series opener against the Nationals in D.C.

The only roster move announced today involved outfielder Anthony Santander's reinstatement from the injured list.

"We did consider it," manager Brandon Hyde said in his Zoom call with the media. "We're pretty banged up, so would love to get some innings out of Lopie (Jorge López) tonight. There's a few guys who are going to be down. Hopefully, we can kind of catch our breath and give some guys some rest here going forward. But, yeah, it was a consideration (and) it's going to be a consideration the whole series."

The term "banged up" doesn't imply that there are physical ailments. Just relievers who have been forced to carry a heavier workload than Hyde is comfortable handing to them.

"We've thrown a lot of innings out of the bullpen the last couple weeks," he said. "Our bullpen got beaten up a little bit this past series."

To the point where its 4.05 ERA and 1.27 WHIP now rank 17th and 10th, respectively, in the majors. Their 3.50 ERA and 1.19 WHIP heading into the Rays series ranked sixth and seventh.

César Valdez was used in the eighth inning yesterday out of need. Hyde prefers to withhold him for save situations, or at least higher leverage than in a blowout loss.

"We've considered a lot of role adjustments," Hyde said.

A string of right-handed hitters in the Yankees lineup had Hyde toying with the idea of an earlier appearance for Valdez. But there's a catch.

"We just don't have the guy behind him right now," Hyde said. "I think Paul Fry, I could possibly do that with him, but there's not a safety net there, so I've been trying to get the ball to him in some capacity just because we don't have much experience in the ninth inning besides that. It's been challenging, there's no doubt about that, and I think we're just going to continue to kind of play with it a little bit.

"When you have a bullpen full of inexperienced guys and guys that haven't really pitched in a ton of big spots in their career, and now we're kind of scuffling a little bit possibly from starters going short, possibly just because it's now the second month and teams have seen them or bullpen's kind of go through the ebbs and flow of a season, also, where guys can get hot for a while, then there are a couple bad outings and hopefully you get them hot again. It hasn't been easy. I just don't have a ton of guys down there with much experience.

"Valdez has shown he can get some outs in the ninth inning and in the games that we've won, the majority of the time he's been on the field for it at the end of the game. But that could change going forward."

Wilkerson retired the first two batters he faced yesterday in his fifth career appearance on the mound, but Joey Wendle homered to deep center field with the Rays ahead 9-1.

White Sox manager Tony La Russa was furious at his own player, Yermín Mercedes, this week for swinging 3-0 and homering off the Twins' Willians Astudillo in a 16-4 win. Mercedes, the former Orioles farmhand, ignored the take sign.

Twins right-hander Tyler Duffey threw behind Mercedes the following game and was ejected.

Hyde wasn't nearly as agitated yesterday with the violation of an unwritten rule.

"I do believe in not showing up other clubs. I do believe in playing the game in a professional manner at all times," he said.

"For me, when a position player goes on the mound, you're just hoping this game ends and everybody comes off the field healthy. If somebody swung 3-0 against Stevie Wilkerson, then I just want it to be at somebody. I just want the inning to be over. That wouldn't affect me."