Bullpen Report: April 21, 2017

On Wednesday, I wrote in this space that if there were one member of the Nationals’ closing tandem to speculate on, it should be Koda Glover. Two days later, Dusty Baker proved me wrong. As reported by the Washington Post, the Nationals’ manager told Kelley he was the team’s closer, though he will still give way to Glover on occasion in order to preserve his elbow. While Baker told reporters later that both Kelley and Glover would close games, he indicated that Kelley would get the larger share of chances.

That was made apparent when Baker brought Kelley in to preserve a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the 11th inning against the Mets, just one night after he got the save in the series finale against the Braves. It was also Kelley’s third save in four days. He threw a perfect inning and has now held the opposition scoreless in his last six appearances, covering five innings.

Jeurys Familia appeared in the top of the 11th inning for the Mets, and he played a role in Kelley getting the save chance in the bottom half of the frame. Josh Smoker began the inning by getting Wilmer Difo to ground out, but after allowing a Bryce Harper double and putting Daniel Murphy on with an intentional walk, Familia was called on to get out of the jam. Instead, he issued back-to-back walks, giving Washington the lead. He prevented further damage by getting strikeouts for the second and third outs, but it’s fair to say that Familia is probably not ready to take the closer reins just yet. In his two appearances, he has thrown only 24 of his 48 pitches for strikes.

Phillies manager Pete Mackanin would not commit to Hector Neris as his closer, even after he earned the save on Thursday at the Mets, but he did say that Neris would be used in a save situation on Friday should one arise. The Phillies carried a two-run lead into the ninth inning against the Braves, and sure enough, Neris was brought in. It was an eventful inning that began with an Adonis Garcia homer and included a pair of singles, but Neris preserved the lead. Whether he did enough to convince Mackanin to officially anoint him as the closer remains to be seen.

For the first time this season, we saw Bryan Price put his plan to alternate Michael Lorenzen and Raisel Iglesias in the late innings into action. Iglesias pitched the eighth and ninth innings of a tie game against the Orioles on Thursday, so when the Reds had a 5-2 lead after seven innings against the Cubs on Friday night, it was Lorenzen Time. He staved off the Cubs in a 22-pitch eighth inning, but in coughing up a three-run homer to Anthony Rizzo in the ninth, Lorenzen blew his first save of the season. The Cubs ultimately won in 11 innings, with Wade Davis getting the save.

Iglesias got three saves in quick succession within the Reds’ first eight games, but he has not had a save opportunity in 10 days. He is owned in 84 percent of leagues on CBS, ESPN and Yahoo, but given that this appears to be a true saves-sharing arrangement, it’s looking as if Iglesias may be over-owned.

Quick Hits: Cam Bedrosian blew his first save of the season, entering in the eighth inning with one out and a 4-3 lead against the Blue Jays. He yielded a Justin Smoak double that brought in two runners, both put on by way of Bud Norris walks…Seung Hwan Oh is still looking for his first hitless appearance, but in getting three strikeouts and only allowing a Jonathan Villar single, his save against the Brewers was his best performance yet…Santiago Casilla appears to be settling in as the Athletics’ primary closer. He notched his third save — his second in four days — with a perfect ninth inning against the Mariners…Greg Holland (9), Tony Watson (5), Ken Giles (4), Brandon Kintzler (4) and Brad Brach (3) also earned saves.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Fernando Rodney	JJ Hoover	Archie Bradley
Atlanta	Jim Johnson	Arodys Vizcaino	Jose Ramirez	Mauricio Cabrera
Baltimore	Brad Brach	Darren O’Day	Mychal Givens	Zach Britton
Boston	Craig Kimbrel	Matt Barnes	Heath Hembree	Carson Smith
CHI (NL)	Wade Davis	Pedro Strop	Koji Uehara
CHI (AL)	David Robertsonon	Nate Jones	Dan Jennings
Cincy	Raisel Iglesias	Michael Lorenzen	Drew Storen
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Andrew Miller	Bryan Shaw
Colorado	Greg Holland	Adam Ottavino	Mike Dunn
Detroit	Francisco Rodriguez	Justin Wilson	Shane Greene
Houston	Ken Giles	Luke Gregerson	Will Harris
KC	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Peter Moylan
LAA	Cam Bedrosian	Bud Norris	Blake Parker	Huston Street
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Sergio Romo	Grant Dayton
Miami	A.J. Ramos	Brad Ziegler	Kyle Barraclough
Milwaukee	Neftali Feliz	Corey Knebel	Jacob Barnes
Minnesota	Brandon Kintzler	Ryan Pressly	Matt Belisle	Glen Perkins
NY (NL)	Addison Reed	Jerry Blevins	Jeurys Familia
NY (AL)	Aroldis Chapman	Dellin Betances	Tyler Clippard
Oakland	Santiago Casilla	Sean Doolittle	Ryan Dull
Philly	Hector Neris	Joaquin Benoit	Jeanmar Gomez
Pittsburgh	Tony Watson	Daniel Hudson	Felipe Rivero
St. Louis	Seung Hwan Oh	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist
SD	Brandon Maurer	Ryan Buchter	Brad Hand	Carter Capps
SF	Mark Melancon	Hunter Strickland	Derek Law
Seattle	Edwin Diaz	Dan Altavilla	Nick Vincent	Steve Cishek
TB	Alex Colome	Danny Farquhar	Erasmo Ramirez	Brad Boxberger
Texas	Matt Bush	Jeremy Jeffress	Jose Leclerc	Sam Dyson
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Jason Grilli	Joe Biagini
Wash.	Shawn Kelley	Koda Glover	Blake Treinen

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