Bullpen Report: April 11, 2017

Another Sam Dyson meltdown has everyone running to their waiver wires, but for who? Matt Bush is the fantasy favorite with a 97 mph and gaudy strikeout rate (26% since the start of 2016), but he’s getting an exam on the AC joint in his right shoulder and will be out for at least a few days. I tend to believe Jeremy Jeffress is the next-in-line even with a healthy Bush after notching 27 saves last year, but he lost the game after Dyson blew it on Tuesday night and has allowed runs in three of his five outing, so it’s not like he’s instilling a ton of confidence in manager Jeff Banister right now, either. We haven’t gotten much from Banister himself, though this non-committal comment from Evan Grant’s piece suggests it’s under review:

“We’ll evaluate all our options,” manager Jeff Banister said when asked about the closer situation.

Be careful on your Bush spend with the potential injury, even though he could be a game-changing closer. Be careful on your Jeffress spend because he hasn’t been great either an Bush is looming. This would’ve been the perfect opportunity for Keone Kela to assert himself as the go-to guy in that pen, but apparently he’s kind of a dick. For what it’s worth, he has six strikeouts, one walk, and one earned run in three innings at Triple-A Round Rock. You deep leaguers speculating for any potential saves might be inclined to give him a cursory bid.

Someone needs to tell Ken Giles he can’t create his own save opportunities. He entered the ninth with a 7-3 lead and allowed two runs for the second straight outing. He at least struck out the side on April 6th when he did it, but walked two with zero strikeouts in Tuesday’s outing. Like Texas, the Houston Astros are expected to contend and thus likely won’t allow too many meltdowns in the ninth before considering a switch.

Luke Gregerson opened with the job last year before eventually ceding it to Giles, but he could be back in play if Giles doesn’t tighten it up. Gregerson had a nightmarish 0.3 IP/6 ER outing on April 8th that will haunt his ERA for the rest of the year, but he has four scoreless innings with five strikeouts, two walks, and two hits allowed surrounding the implosion. Will Harris was 12-for-15 in save chances last year and has 4.7 scoreless innings to start the season. His 3% swinging strike rate is out of character compared to last year’s 13% and career 11% rates so keep an eye on that, but it’s the kind of thing that can be corrected in just a few outings with his normal swing-and-miss stuff. Michael Feliz is a long way from getting a chance at saves on this team, but the flame-throwing 24-year old (96.3 mph heater) has the goods.

Francisco Rodriguez had a sweaty save on Tuesday afternoon, allowing a run in a 2-0 game, but there are no viable alternatives in Detroit right now so he has a long leash. Prospect Joe Jimenez was recently called up after Bruce Rondon’s demotion and seems to have the stuff that screams future closer, but I can’t imagine it’d happen any time before Memorial Day.

Jeanmar Gomez being named closer to start the season now feels like just a hat tip for his passable work in 2016 given how shorts the leash was, as Joaquin Benoit has now been placed in the role after Gomez allowed runs in three of his first four outings. Benoit had a rough go in Seattle with out-of-character walks pairing with some untimely home runs (are reliever home runs ever timely, though?) to yield a 5.18 ERA. He cut the walks and homers after a trade to Toronto and regained his footing (0.38 ERA). Hector Neris is the flashier arm that we’d all love to see getting saves, but I could see Benoit holding this for a while.

Roberto Osuna made his season debut on Tuesday, allowing a hit and striking out a batter in a non-save ninth inning. I can understand deep leaguers holding Jason Grilli for a week as a just-in-case measure, but Osuna is fully locked into the role when healthy.

Greg Holland doesn’t quite have his peak velocity back, but he’s at 93.8 mph and has tossed five scoreless with a 50% strikeout rate (8 of 16 batters) and saves in each of the five outings so far. He’s been leaning on the slider with a career-high 54% usage rate and thus far it’s serving him well.

Fernando Rodney had another loud save, this time allowing two runs in 4-1 game, but similar to the situation in Detroit, there just aren’t any viable alternatives threatening him for that job just yet. Archie Bradley has had two strong extended relief appearances leading many to tab him the closer of the future, but frankly, he is more valuable to them in this fireman multi-inning role. You don’t want any piece of JJ Hoover or Randall Delgado as Rodney hedge bets.

Closer Grid:

[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]