When Greg Bird was activated from the DL on May 26, Ronald Torreyes surprisingly was sent to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, while Tyler Austin remained with the Yankees.

When another move was needed Thursday to promote Jonathan Loaisiga for his Friday start, Austin, the extra first baseman, had no longer done enough to warrant the nod over Torreyes, the utility man, who stayed with the Yankees.

“[Torreyes] just gives us more flexibility,” manager Aaron Boone said before the Yankees’ 5-0 win over the Rays Friday night at the Stadium. “We were seeing Tyler’s playing time kind of diminish, and with [Neil] Walker, we kind of have that protection if we want to give Bird a day off.

“We have 13 pitchers,’’ Boone said. “To have three first basemen is probably not the most perfect roster construction.We just felt at the time that Tyler had really earned the right to be on this team with the protection he had given us the first six, eight weeks, but we were finding the at-bats weren’t there. I think it’s best for him, and for us, to go down there and hopefully get back into regular playing time, and regular at-bats, to eventually become an option for us again.”

Austin has eight home runs this season, and was hitting .305 on April 25, but he batted .130 in May — including an 0-for-20 stretch —and is now carries a .223 average.