Bullpen Report: April 12, 2016

• Yeah, Pete Mackanin won’t say it, but Jeanmar Gomez seems to have the Phillies gig until further notice. Pitching for the third time in four days, the 28-year-old tossed a scoreless ninth for his third consecutive save. He’s not whiffing a ton of guys (2 strikeouts over 14 batters faced), but two-thirds of the balls put in play against him this season have been on the ground. I wouldn’t expect the worm-burning ways to continue since Gomez has hovered around 50% GB% the last few years, but if he can minimize the walks (5% last season) he can be a passable reliever (3.79 SIERA last season) who won’t kill your rates. He should be owned if you need saves (and my guess is he’s gone in almost all deeper leagues by now), but he has the skillset that opens itself up to BABIP luck, so be forewarned. It’s tough to see him holding the gig without hiccups all season, so don’t invest heavily on the trade market. Of note, David Hernandez tossed a scoreless eighth and has looked competent since his April 4th blowup against the Reds. He should be snagged in very deep mixed or NL-onlies where save speculation is all the rage.

• Don’t panic Jonathan Papelbon owners — looks like he just got the night off after working the last two. The save will technically go to Felipe Rivero, but he only entered because Blake Treinen ran out of gas after tossing the eighth and opening the ninth. Interestingly, Shawn Kelley worked the 7th inning (striking out a pair). Kelley has now worked a couple times in the 7th and once in the 8th so far in 2016. It’s a bit murky who would be second in line if Bryce Harper choked Papelbon tomorrow, but it’s hard not to love Kelley’s rates. I’d keep holding him if you drafted him and hope he really cements himself as “next closer” over the next few months.

• Looking for a deep, deep league name you might start to hear more about this summer? How about John Barbato? Ben touched on him last week, and former Padres farmhand picked up his first major league win in relief tonight against the Jays. It’s extremely early (and therefore a tiny, tiny sample), but the righty has induced whiffs on one-fifth of all pitches he’s thrown. While not top-top-end, his 94+ mph fastball is plenty for the late innings and the slider (anecdotally) looks filthy. He has a history of arm issues (Tommy John being the most recent), and there are obviously other dominant arms in the Yankee bullpen vying for holds, but if you desperately want rates in a 20-team league, I bet he’s available (well, he’s not available in mine anymore). If he keeps pitching like has has this first week, the ownership rate won’t be at <1% for much longer.

• Quick hits: Wade Davis didn’t make it look easy (walked a pair), but eventually escaped with the save in a one-run game. The iffy control is somewhat worrisome, but the stuff is still there, so I’d err on him being back up to snuff soon enough. A.J. Ramos and Andrew Miller both whiffed two while each picking up their second saves of the season. Luckily the D-Backs were able to stretch their lead in the ninth inning, because Brad Ziegler gave up a run in the bottom half. He still escaped with save number one and is “the guy” for now in Arizona (although I’ll forever be worried about his platoon splits).

Closer Grid:

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