Bullpen Report: April 27, 2016

• Jeanmar Gomez continues to hold down the fort in Philadelphia. The righty polished off Jeremy Hellickson’s gem tonight, tossing a 1-2-3 ninth inning (with a strikeout) for his sixth save of the season. While his 2.08 ERA is certainly better than his peripherals would indicate, he legitimately has pitched well to open 2016. His (admittedly tiny sample) SwStr% is a career high (10%) as is his 15% K%-BB%. No one is pretending that Gomez is suddenly an elite stopper, but (assuming he can continue to post a low-3.00s FIP) he probably needs to be vaulted out of the “least stable” tier. He’s probably sitting somewhere between 20th and 25th of MLB closers I’d buy right now — plenty desirable in a 12-team mixed league as a 2nd or 3rd closer option, especially since the Phillies don’t look as totally, ridiculously, hopelessly lost as projected.

• Addison Reed is back in the SV column. However, don’t go running out to pick up the righty just yet, as he was merely vulturing a save from Jeurys Familia after the Mets closer had pitched the last three (and four of the last five) days. The former White Sox farmhand was solid, tossing a clean ninth with a lone punchout of Adam Duvall. While Reed’s 2015 was the worst (peripherally) of his big league career, there have been some positive signs through a few weeks of 2016. His SwStr% is well up, although there isn’t a significant change in pitch mix or velocity. Reed is also attacking the strike zone and getting ahead of hitters — his 70% F-Strike% would easily be the best mark of his career. It’s somewhat tenuous whether these small gains will persist as the calendar pages turn, but a hot start and his usage patterns show that Reed is (for now) the handcuff to own in Queens.

• Joel Peralta seems like the guy who’ll take over the eighth inning in Seattle now that Joaquin Benoit has hit the shelf. A late bloomer, Peralta has always been a solid, if unspectacular, reliever, although he did show some signs of regression in LA last year. With an apparent rebound in his K% so far in 2016, the righty appears to have regained some of his mojo (fastball up half a tick, SwStr% up 3%). Maybe the 40-year-old has a little gas left in the tank; pick him up if you are speculating. I still like Tony Zych if we’re playing the long game here, although he will need to get the walks (8 out of 47 batters faced) under control. When you have a slider generating a 25% SwStr%, you can probably afford to pound the zone.

• Quick hits: Zach Britton notched save number five, although he hurt roto owners a bit in ERA and WHIP. My guess is he’ll make up for that little hiccup going forward. David Robertson struck out a couple batters in a scoreless ninth inning. Too bad the White Sox had a four-run lead. Francisco Rodriguez returned from the family medical emergency list and also tossed a perfect inning in a non-save situation. Perhaps more relevant to the blogosphere was that the Tigers gave Tyler Collins the middle finger (well, demoted him to Triple-A) to clear the way for K-Rod.

Closer Grid:

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