Bullpen Report: August 16, 2017

In a tumultuous season for the Cardinals’ bullpen, it was starting to look like Trevor Rosenthal was creating some stability. He had rattled off seven consecutive saves over a 16-day period, the first six of which were scoreless.

On Wednesday night, it took just eight pitches to ruin that placid state. On his second pitch — a 91.4 mph four-seam fastball — Rosenthal gave up a home run to Xander Bogaerts. Six pitches later, Mitch Moreland took a free pass. Mike Matheny was sufficiently concerned that he removed Rosenthal for Zach Duke. Rosenthal averaged 94.3 mph on the six four-seam fastballs he threw, after he had hovered around 97 mph over his previous six appearances. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, Duke and John Brebbia didn’t fare much better, and the latter gave up Mookie Betts‘ walk-off double.

It is not clear what was wrong with Rosenthal or if he will be able to pitch in the Cardinals’ next save situation. Seung Hwan Oh has been more effective lately, but he appears to have been leapfrogged in the bullpen pecking order by Tyler Lyons. It’s easy to see why; Lyons has not allowed a run since July 6, and he has struck out 18 batters and walked four over 12 2/3 innings during that span. A greater reliance on sliders has helped the formerly homer-prone Lyons to hold opponents to two home runs over 38 innings this season. Maybe the velocity dip winds up being just a blip on the radar for Rosenthal, but it couldn’t hurt to put in a bid now for Lyons, just in case.

Well before Wednesday’s first pitch against the Mets, Joe Girardi told reporters he would not be using Aroldis Chapman if the Yankees were presented with a save situation. Chapman has been dealing with a leg injury, but Girardi did not cite health as his reason for sitting his closer. Instead, he said, “(we) want him to go through some things and make sure it is OK.” Girardi tabbed David Robertson as the fill-in closer ahead of time, and it was indeed Robertson who pitched the ninth inning with a 5-3 lead. He was able to close the door with a scoreless frame.

Chapman has struggled at various points this season, but his job never appeared to be in serious danger. It may not be this time either, as Girardi asserted that Chapman was still his closer. He also said that Chapman was not going to get an MRI, so he does not appear due for his second visit to the DL this season. Still, he has allowed runs in each of his last three appearances, has blown four of 13 save opportunities since May 7 and owns a 5.40 ERA over that stretch.

Should Girardi replace Chapman on a more permanent basis at some point, it won’t necessarily be Robertson who gets the call. Dellin Betances has retained his eighth-inning role even with the acquisition of Robertson, and he has allowed one run over his last 17 appearances covering 17 2/3 innings, striking out 28 batters, though walking seven. If not for having pitched three days in a row, it could have been Betances closing out the game on Wednesday.

Edwin Diaz was replaced briefly as the Mariners’ closer earlier this season due to mechanical issues, and by his own admission, they flared up again on Wednesday afternoon against the Orioles. He began the top of the ninth inning with a 7-4 lead but walked the bases loaded, which was followed by a Manny Machado sacrifice fly that could have easily been more damaging if not for a spectacular running catch by Leonys Martin. Two batters later, Diaz re-loaded the bases by hitting Trey Mancini, and then he hit Mark Trumbo to cut the lead to one run. If not for Marc Rzepczynski coming into to get the third out, Diaz could have been well on his way to blowing his fifth save of the season.

Aside from giving up three runs last Thursday in a loss to the Angels, Diaz has been reliable in converting saves lately. Since his last blown save on July 22, Diaz has allowed at least one run in only three out of 11 appearances, and he is 8-for-8 in his save opportunities. However, he has walked 10 batters over 10 1/3 innings and has walked at least one batter in five of his last six outings. It looks like a good time to speculate on Nick Vincent, who has been steady as Scott Servais‘ primary set-up man. He won’t necessarily get many strikeouts, but Vincent has superb control and a low BABIP (.270) typical of an extreme flyball pitcher. Incredibly, he entered Wednesday’s game with an .078 Iso, as he had the 14th-lowest hard contact rate on flyballs and 33rd-lowest flyball pull rate out of 324 pitchers with at least 10 innings pitched resulting in flyballs.

David Phelps (elbow), who could be activated as soon as this weekend, would also be a possibility to succeed Diaz, if Servais wanted to keep Vincent in the eighth-inning role.

Juan Minaya was widely presumed to be White Sox’s closer in the post-Tyler Clippard era, but he came in for the eighth inning with one out and a 4-2 lead against the Dodgers on Wednesday night. Then Rick Renteria started off the ninth inning with Gregory Infante and played the matchups from there on out. Aaron Bummer came in to face pinch-hitter Cody Bellinger and yielded a single. Jake Petricka was charged with the rest of the inning, but he never got the second out, much less the third one. A Logan Forsythe double brought the Dodgers within a run, and then an Austin Barnes single followed by Yasiel Puig’s two-RBI double ended the game.

I still don’t know who the White Sox’s closer is, but the door still appears to be wide open for Minaya. At this point, I would rather take a chance on Lyons or Vincent.

Or for that matter, Cam Bedrosian. He was Mike Scioscia’s closer du jour on Wednesday, as he overcame a leadoff walk to blank the Nationals for his third save in seven days. He looks to be the Angels’ reliever to own, though Yusmeiro Petit and Keynan Middleton have also been used as closers in the past week. Scioscia appears dedicated to using a committee.

Kyle Barraclough was activated from the 10-day DL on Tuesday, so the Marlins’ closer situation has become a little more intriguing. Don Mattingly told the Miami Herald he would use Barraclough in high leverage situations upon his return, yet the righty pitched the eighth inning on Tuesday with a two-run deficit. The Herald report also indicated that Mattingly could use both Barraclough and Brad Ziegler in save situations at some point this season. That does not sound promising in terms of Barraclough’s saves potential, but if you own Ziegler, it’s time to search for a more reliable saves source.

For the second day in a row, Blake Treinen allowed the Royals to score in the late innings. On Wednesday, he entered the ninth inning with a 6-6 tie, and he allowed a leadoff double to Alcides Escobar followed by an Alex Gordon RBI single. While it is slightly concerning, Santiago Casilla and Ryan Dull have stumbled lately, too. Treinen’s job seems secure for now.

On Wednesday, Jeurys Familia made his first appearance in a game since having a blood clot removed from his shoulder in May, pitching a scoreless inning for Advanced Class A St. Lucie. According to MLB.com, he will not likely need the maximum 30 days allotted for a rehab assignment and is expected to close again for the Mets before the end of the season.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
ARI	Fernando Rodney	Archie Bradley	David Hernandez
ATL	Arodys Vizcaino	Jim Johnson	Jose Ramirez
BAL	Zach Britton	Mychal Givens	Brad Brach
BOS	Craig Kimbrel	Addison Reed	Matt Barnes	Carson Smith
CHC	Wade Davis	Justin Wilson	Carl Edwards Jr.
CWS	Juan Minaya	Gregory Infante	Jake Petricka	Nate Jones
CIN	Raisel Iglesias	Michael Lorenzen	Drew Storen
CLE	Cody Allen	Joe Smith	Bryan Shaw	Andrew Miller
COL	Greg Holland	Pat Neshek	Adam Ottavino
DET	Shane Greene	Alex Wilson	Joe Jimenez
HOU	Ken Giles	Chris Devenski	Luke Gregerson	Will Harris
KC	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Brandon Maurer
LAA	Cam Bedrosian	Blake Parker	Keynan Middleton	Huston Street
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Luis Avilan	Pedro Baez
MIA	Brad Ziegler	Kyle Barraclough	Junichi Tazawa
MIL	Corey Knebel	Anthony Swarzak	Jacob Barnes
MIN	Trevor Hildenberger	Taylor Rogers	Matt Belisle	Glen Perkins
NYM	A.J. Ramos	Paul Sewald	Jerry Blevins	Jeurys Familia
NYY	Aroldis Chapman	Dellin Betances	David Robertson
OAK	Blake Treinen	Ryan Dull	Santiago Casilla
PHI	Hector Neris	Luis Garcia	Jesen Therrien
PIT	Felipe Rivero	Juan Nicasio	Joaquin Benoit
STL	Trevor Rosenthal	Tyler Lyons	Seung Hwan Oh
SD	Brad Hand	Kirby Yates	Phil Maton
SF	Sam Dyson	Hunter Strickland	Mark Melancon
SEA	Edwin Diaz	Nick Vincent	Tony Zych	David Phelps
TB	Alex Colome	Tommy Hunter	Steve Cishek
TEX	Alex Claudio	Jose Leclerc	Matt Bush	Keone Kela
TOR	Roberto Osuna	Ryan Tepera	Dominic Leone
WSH	Sean Doolittle	Ryan Madson	Brandon Kintzler	Koda Glover

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