Bullpen Report: July 21, 2017
In the aftermath of Wednesday’s trade that saw the White Sox send Todd Frazier, David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle to the Yankees, it was widely presumed that Anthony Swarzak would inherit the closer’s role on the South Side of Chicago. Then came the announcement later on Wednesday that Rick Renteria would be turning to Tyler Clippard, who came over in the deal from the Yankees, instead.
The fantasy community let out a collective groan. Clippard’s second tenure with the Yankees ended with a thud, as he allowed 16 runs over his final 13 1/3 innings with 10 walks and five home runs allowed. His White Sox debut against the Royals did not go much better. He entered in the bottom of the 10th inning with the game knotted at 6-6. Clippard began by allowing back-to-back singles to Alcides Escobar and Alex Gordon and then loaded the bases with a walk to Jorge Bonifacio. The fourth batter Clippard faced, Whit Merrifield, walked off with a sacrifice fly.
Swarzak could close for the White Sox yet. As Benjamin Pasinkoff mentioned in the previous edition of the Bullpen Report, the organization may look to build up Swarzak’s trade value, as he is set to enter free agency at the end of this season. Allowing him to pick up a few saves would be a good way of achieving that. With a 28.6 percent strikeout rate, 6.6 percent walk rate and 23.4 percent hard contact rate (entering Friday), Swarzak has the profile of a successful closer, but if he gets promoted to the role, he would probably stay just long enough to earn himself a ticket out of town. There is some value to stashing Swarzak for his saves potential, but bear in mind that his shelf life as a closer could be extremely limited.
Addison Reed had pitched 1 2/3 innings or more four times this season, and only two of those were in save situations. He had a chance to record a five-out save on Friday night, as Terry Collins brought Reed in with a 7-4 lead with one out and two runners on in the eighth inning against the A’s. However, Reed never even got close to notching his 17th save of the season, as he was removed after walking Rajai Davis and yielding an RBI single to Marcus Semien.
Though Reed departed with the bases loaded, he did not have a run charged to him, much less get saddled with a loss. That’s because Jerry Blevins came in and set down all five batters he faced, while not allowing either of the runners Reed put on to score.
Reed figures to get traded within the next 10 days, and in all likelihood, it will be to a team that will use him in a setup role. In any event, he has been steady as the Mets’ closer, so Friday’s stumble won’t likely be the reason he could miss the Mets’ next save opportunity. Reed has now pitched on three consecutive days, so we should expect him to get Saturday off.
The bigger fantasy impact of this unusual turn of events is how it may influence Collins’ choice of a closer when and if Reed is dealt. Paul Sewald seemed to be settling in as the Mets’ primary right-handed set-up option, but he has not been the same since a 41-pitch outing at Miami on June 27. Up through that outing, Sewald had exhibited superb control, but in 6 2/3 innings since, he has walked five batters and thrown 57.8 percent of his pitches for strikes.
With this performance, maybe Blevins has earned some consideration for saves, at least as part of a committee. Then again, he has had limited exposure to right-handed hitters this season, and when he had faced them prior to Friday’s game, he had allowed them to post an 1.156 OPS.
Dusty Baker has stated that he plans to use both Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle in save situations, selecting one over the other based on matchups. He has dropped other hints that he will use them in a closer platoon. On Tuesday, he used Madson in the eighth inning to get the hold against the Angels with the righty-lefty-righty combo of Andrelton Simmons, Luis Valbuena and Martin Maldonado set to bat. Then Doolittle came in for the save with switch-hitter Nick Franklin slated to lead off (though C.J. Cron pinch hit) and lefties Ben Revere and Kole Calhoun following him in the batting order. On Friday, Baker used Madson to preserve a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the eighth with righty Brandon Drury, switch-hitter Ketel Marte and righty Jeff Mathis starting off the inning. Had Madson retired those three in order, that would have spared him from facing lefties David Peralta and Jake Lamb in the upper third of the Diamondbacks’ order.
As it happened, Madson had to face Peralta, but lefty Enny Romero was still brought on for the ninth inning with the game still tied. The Diamondbacks won on a Drury RBI single, so the game never made it to Doolittle.
Alex Claudio did not earn a save against the Rays on Friday, but Jeff Banister continued to show faith in him in high leverage situations. The lefty was brought in to preserve a tie in the bottom of the ninth inning against righty Wilson Ramos, lefty Brad Miler and righty Tim Beckham. With the Rangers clinging to a 4-3 lead in the 10th, Claudio came back out for the win, allowing only a Steven Souza Jr. single. Though it remains to be seen how Banister will use recently-activated Keone Kela, it is looking more and more like Claudio could run away with the Rangers’ closer job.
Since the last Bullpen Report, David Phelps was traded by the Marlins to the Mariners for four prospects: outfielder Brayan Hernandez and pitchers Brandon Miller, Pablo Lopez and Lukas Schiraldi. Phelps has been replaced in the Marlins’ portion of the closer grid by Junichi Tazawa, while Phelps himself is at least temporarily being withheld from the grid. It is not yet clear whether Phelps will be used more in the middle innings or in a setup role for the Mariners.
Note: At the time of this writing, the Padres-Giants game was still in progress.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
Al Melchior has been writing about Fantasy baseball and sim games since 2000, and his work has appeared at CBSSports.com, BaseballHQ, Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster and FanRagSports. He has also participated in Tout Wars' mixed auction league since 2013. You can follow Al on Twitter @almelchiorbb and find more of his work at almelchior.com.