Yankees’ bullpen shuffling continues with return of Jake Cousins

TORONTO — The Yankees’ bullpen shuffle continued Thursday, and it may not stop until the trade deadline next month.

Jake Cousins was the latest fresh arm to join the team’s relief corps, getting called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre with Yoendrys Gomez going back down before the Yankees opened a series against the Blue Jays.

After a strong start to the season, the Yankees’ bullpen has been a mess of late with plenty of moving pieces.

They also had to cover 25 innings over the Yankees’ last six games before Thursday, giving up 20 runs (15 earned) during that stretch, though their struggles have gone beyond the past week.

“We’ve hit a little rough patch there, too, where we’ve struggled a little bit,” manager Aaron Boone said before Cousins threw 1 ²/₃ scoreless innings in Thursday’s 9-2 loss to the Blue Jays. “Some turnover and trying to get guys to define some roles. I feel very good about a few pieces that we get the ball to late with a lead, but we’re still working through trying to carve out that pecking order, that depth of where is the right role for everyone? That’s been a little bit of a challenge the last few weeks.”

Clay Holmes, Luke Weaver, Michael Tonkin and, recently, Tommy Kahnle have been steady pieces within Boone’s circle of trust.

Lefty Caleb Ferguson has struggled to establish much consistency while the other three arms — Cousins, Phil Bickford and Tim Hill — have all been new additions within the past week.

Cousins, acquired from the White Sox a few days into the season, gave up one earned run in three innings for the Yankees in April before being optioned to Triple-A.

He spent nearly two months on the injured list there but recently returned and had a 3.00 ERA in seven appearances.

In what was merely a formality, Aaron Judge was named a starting outfielder for the American League All-Star team Thursday, courtesy of receiving the most fan votes during the first phase of allotting.

Juan Soto, who was second behind Judge in AL voting, was the only other Yankee to advance to the second phase of All-Star voting, which begins Sunday.

Scott Effross, who could give the Yankees’ bullpen a shot in the arm, made his third rehab appearance Thursday with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, tossing a scoreless inning in which he struck out two and gave up two hits.

Boone said Effross, who is coming back from Tommy John surgery and back surgery, will have “several outings” at Triple-A before he could rejoin the bullpen.

“Looking forward to him continuing to build up because obviously he can be an important factor for us,” Boone said.

Reliever Clayton Andrews, who had been designated for assignment last week, elected free agency instead of accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A.