Carpenter’s performance has been maddening in 2015. When the Yankees acquired him and Chasen Shreve in the Manny Banuelos off-season deal, they expected him to give the bullpen a real shot in the arm after pitching very well for the Braves. He recorded a 2.63 ERA, a 10.0 K/9, and a 2.6 BB/9 during his two years in Atlanta, so no need to worry, right? Unfortunately, he has pitched nothing like that guy during his first 20 games as a Yankee, and last night was a vintage example of his struggles. Following a fielder’s choice turned on a bunt, Marcus Semien smashed a grounder too hard through the left side to load the bases, and Ben Zobrist untied the game by walking with the bases loaded. Carpenter really needed a strikeout of Billy Butler, but the Oakland DH lifted it to center for a sacrifice fly, making the score 5-3. That was all for Carpenter and Shreve entered to end the mess on a pop-up.

While the game’s outcome would have been frustrating anyway, Carpenter’s appearance made it all the more irritating. No, the Yankees didn’t have their best arms rested to help, but Carpenter has done very little this year to merit a higher spot on the pecking order. Not a single reliever on the team has a worse DRA than Carpenter’s 4.77 in 18 innings. Pitching rookie Jacob Lindgren would have been a possibility, even though it would have been a tough situation to throw him in for his second career game. However, it’s hard to justify Carpenter’s continued usage over Shreve, who while holding a platoon disadvantage has pitched far better. He has a 4.07 DRA in 19 1/3 frames, striking out almost a batter an inning with a lower walk rate, and after Carpenter’s implosion, Oakland went down in order against him.

At this point, one can only wonder how much longer the Yankees are going to wait around crossing their fingers that the Carpenter of 2013-14 shows up again. Perhaps his poor performance shouldn’t be such a surprise. After a stellar 1.78 ERA, 2.63 DRA, and 6.2 H/9 in 2013, which was by far the best season of his five-year career, he slipped to a 3.54 ERA, 3.93 DRA, and 9.0 H/9 in 2014. He did post similar strikeout and walk totals, but he was far more hittable thanks to his BABIP stabilizing after a career-best .263 in 2013.

Although expecting a fall this precipitous probably would have been too much, it’s difficult to look at his numbers and hope they improve. There’s the aforementioned 4.77 DRA, the 5.00 ERA, the 1.444 WHIP, and pretty much no positive to draw. Hell, it’s not like this is any BABIP-caused weirdness either, as the .281 mark is much better than last year’s .333. The walks and homers are up, the strikeouts are down, and patience is running thin. Remember, this is a 29-year-old who only had 1.7 career WARP and one standout season entering 2015. The other four years have merely been average or subpar.

Ace starter Masahiro Tanaka appears ready to come off the disabled list and enter the rotation on Tuesday or Wednesday night of next week. Reliever Chris Martin, who pitched well in April before going on the DL with elbow tendinitis, is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment in Triple-A on Saturday and could rejoin the team before too long as well. So the Yankees will likely have some roster move decisions to make very soon.

Maybe one of Chris Capuano or Esmil Rogers departs for Tanaka since he would be bumping someone from the rotation into a long relief role, but it doesn’t seem justified for Lindgren to lose his spot. This isn’t an overreaction to his one game pitched, either–He’s just already a big league-caliber arm, and the Yankees knew that it would not take him long to reach that point either when they drafted him with their top pick just last year. He has serious potential that it’s hard to really see out of a guy like Carpenter. It’s difficult to definitively say that Carpenter would be better than one of the other intriguing arms in Triple-A either, like Branden Pinder or Nick Rumbelow.

It’s almost June and Carpenter has offered basically nothing. It already looks like Shreve was a solid enough addition from the Banuelos trade. It’s not too soon at all to cut bait on Carpenter, and his days as a Yankee should be numbered. With such a bevy of talent waiting in the wings, Girardi doesn’t need to be rolling the dice on a comeback for much longer.

(Photo: Kim Klement-USA Today Sports)

Hahahahaha who’s that knucklehead? What a ridiculous, ill-informed thing to do, resting the weight of your prediction on a team’s bullpen, full of guys who are literally there because they are inconsistent, so much it’s accepted that you just don’t sign bullpen guys to long-term deals so you can build a team around them, because then you end up with a Ryan Madson or Jonathan Papelbon or whatever. Look at Fernando Rodney! In 2012, he had one of the greatest seasons in the history of pitching, and now his ERA is over 15, just because.

Oh. Uh, whoops. Last night’s 7-5 Yankees loss to the Orioles was the fault of relievers David Carpenter, Justin Wilson and Chris Martin. Their collective five-run meltdown in the sixth inning was a sharp heel turn for a staff that had ranked third in bullpen ERA before Wednesday.

Bullpen meltdowns happen. But the prospect and occurrence of them is particularly concerning for the Yankees, because their starting pitching hasn’t shown the skill or longevity that led PECOTA to project it for the top cumulative WARP in the A.L. East. The Yankees, before Wednesday, had received 36.1 innings from their bullpen, which was the most of any team in the majors. Then they got three tonight, so that ranking probably won’t drop significantly.

This was a particularly bad meltdown, of five runs in an inning, blowing a lead and ultimately leading to the team’s loss. What is the precedent for this happening to teams like the Yankees, who, if they are to make the playoffs, will have to outshoot their projections on the strength of their position, particularly the bullpen? (Because from the looks of it now, the offense sure isn’t going to pull the weight.)

The 2014 Royals are the ideal for this model for success. So, I did my own little Play Index segment (minus the Play Index, which was of no use to me for my specific query) and looked for games in which their bullpen, whether it be the fault of an individual pitcher of a combined effort, gave up more than five runs in an inning.

I found three instances: Aaron Brooks gave up six runs in the ninth against the Tigers on May 3; the Royals were already losing that game. Donnie Joseph and Michael Mariot gave up six runs in the ninth on June 16; the Royals were winning 11-2 before that inning, and the pitching debacle didn’t affect the final result. Finally, Bruce Chen gave up six runs against the Twins in the top of the 10th inning on Aug. 28…and I don’t think anything needs to be said there.

That was it. Three instances, and none of them involving guys who were actually a significant part of that bullpen. No Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, Greg Holland, Jason Frasor, Aaron Crow; you know, guys who were actually a significant part of that staff, in the same way Carpenter and Martin are for the Yankees right now.

I’m not saying that the Yankees blowing a game like this is a sign of impending doom. They’ve still got Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances to hold down the back end. Betances threw a scoreless inning tonight, and while his fastball was still in the mid, rather than upper, 90s, and he was missing badly on some pitches, he got strikeouts of Chris Davis (big whoop, I know) and Manny Machado.

But, at this point, things aren’t looking peachy, either.

Photo: Getty