SEE YA! YANKEES DFA SANTANA & IT'S ABOUT TIME!

The writing has been on the wall a long time for Dennis Santana. It's nothing personal, but he didn't fit in on this team. The Yankees designated him for assignment yesterday, so the Yankees have seven days to either trade him or attempt to pass him through waivers.

I've never felt very confident when Santana made an appearance in a game. I felt even more uneasy when he appeared in Friday and Saturday's games against the Dodgers. The last thing I would want to see is Santana coming in to play against the Dodgers. That's just a bad combination, not a good time for the bullpen to be short. So when Santana was unable to get out of the top of the ninth and they had to bring in Oswaldo Cabrera for the final out, that was the end of Santana's Yankee tenure.

Santana signed a minor league deal over the winter, which quickly turned into major league playing time when Jonathan Loaisiga hit the Injured List. Santana looked okay in May, but once June arrived hitters started feasting off of him at the plate and his ERA skyrocketed to 10.97. The Yankees can't continue to roll with Santana out there. He's a decent reliever, but not one that should be relied upon this often for a contending team.

So now Ron Marinaccio has been called up. Honestly, I never liked that he was sent down to begin with, I really liked what I saw when we played Houston back in May. When you compare Santana and Marinaccio, it made no sense to keep Santana up. The Yankees have performed better than I expected this far into the season. I've been sitting here playing scenarios out in my head about what Yankees should get by the deadline and the fact that we have relied so much on Santana shows us this may be our biggest area of opportunity. 

A reliable arm to bridge the gap to Clay Holmes will make this team stronger. Santana was never meant to be that arm, but it will only make the Yankees a tougher team down the stretch. Santana is a decent relief pitcher and could have a spot on a decent team's roster but shouldn't have been relied upon this much for a team predicted to be a World Series contender. The Yankees will be buyers at the deadline and should start looking for the difference maker in their bullpen.

So, this was a good move by the Yankees. It goes to show that having depth is important. Marinaccio never deserved to be demoted anyways, and honestly, I trust him more.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj