Rockies trade yet another player to Yankees

After sending Ryan McMahon to the New York Yankees last week, the Colorado Rockies are sending another player to the Bronx on Thursday — this time, it’s reliever Jake Bird.

The Rockies got prospects Roc Riggio and Ben Shields back for Bird. Riggio is a left-handed-hitting second baseman, and Shields is a left-handed pitcher. The deal was reported by multiple sources, with the full deal via MLB.com.

Bird, 29, has spent his entire pro career with the Rockies. The right-hander was selected in the fifth round of the 2018 draft by Colorado out of UCLA. Colorado pretty quickly turned him into a reliever and he made his debut during the 2022 season.

Bird got out to a great start this season, but the Rockies lost some value on him by hanging it out to the deadline with a trade. His ERA has ballooned all the way to 4.73 after his rough outing on Monday. At one point earlier in the season, he looked like one of the best relievers in the league with a 0.95 ERA at the end of April, but he has totally lost his mojo. Still, Bird’s ERA+ is a league average of 100, which is just slightly below his career marks after 230.1 innings pitched in the bigs.

Bird joins McMahon, who has a walk-off hit for the Yankees on Wednesday night, as they’re four games back in chasing down the Blue Jays for first in the AL East. Meanwhile, the Rockies lost their 80th game on the same evening and have only won 28. Colorado could sell even a few more relievers before the trades stop later today.

The Rockies are selling to add to their future, something they’ve been hesitant to do in the past. And both Bird and McMahon and years left with Colorado, so there was no pressure to trade them. It’s a signal from Bill Schimdt that the team is taking a new approach.

For Colorado’s efforts, they get the 10th-rated prospect in the Yankees system back in Riggio. The 23-year-old was a fourth-round pick in 2023, coming out of Oklahoma State, where he played for Rockies prospect Ethan Holliday’s uncle, Josh Holliday, in Stillwater. For the Cowboys, he had a legendary NCAA Regionals playoff performance (15-for-27, four homers, five doubles, 17 RBIs in five games) as a freshman, earning him freshman All-America honors. Riggio advanced to the Double-A level earlier this year, where he’s hit 11 homers in 40 games for Somerset.

Shields is a 26-year-old who has only pitched once in Triple-A last season. Still in Double-A, he’s made five strong starts for Somerset in 2025. He offers a fastball-curveball duo and should impact the Rockies in the majors at some point fairly soon.

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