All Rise! Yankees pitcher who got revenge for Aaron Judge sentenced to waivers

It felt like this past week's series featuring the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles could've been the best series of the entire regular season. Those hopes quickly vanished as Aaron Judge had to leave the first game of the series early after getting hit by a pitch.

Thankfully, the injury scare turned out to be minor, but the Yankees hadn't quite let the situation go. Left-handed reliever Victor Gonzalez wound up hitting Orioles superstar Gunnar Henderson right in the back in the seventh inning of a three-run game this past Wednesday. It's impossible to know if it was fully intentional, but it sure felt like it in the moment, given the situation.

Gonzalez was not ejected for that hit-by-pitch, and he even wound up pitching the next day for New York. Unfortunately, his struggles continued as he allowed two runs in an inning of work, and the Yankees wound up DFA'ing him on Friday.

Victor Gonzalez has memorable last Yankees moment before team places him on waivers

Gonzalez was acquired by the Yankees over the offseason in a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. They gave up former first-round pick Trey Sweeney in the deal, so that said a lot about what the Yankees thought they were getting with Gonzalez, a reliever who had a 3.22 ERA in three seasons with the Dodgers.

Unfortunately, despite his 3.86 ERA with New York, Gonzalez wasn't very effective. He had a 5.17 xERA and a 5.93 FIP, suggesting that his ERA was only going to balloon. He had issued 13 walks while striking out just 11 batters. He did well limiting the opposition to a .160 batting average against, but again, luck seemingly had a lot to do with that given the fact that he ranks in the 37th percentile in average exit velocity according to Baseball Savant.

While he didn't pitch very well for New York, especially of late, the move is a bit surprising considering not only what they gave up to get him, but because he has two more years of club control after this season. The Yankees acquired him expecting him to be part of their long-term solution in the bullpen, but instead, the 28-year-old didn't even last 80 games with the club.

Credit to Brian Cashman for admitting defeat on an acquisition that wasn't working, and hopefully he can find a way to fix what has been an underperforming bullpen lately.