Bullpen Report: July 28, 2017

The Marlins pulled into the top of the ninth inning with a 7-3 lead against the Reds on Friday night, and even though it was not a save situation, it felt a little odd to see Junichi Tazawa — and not A.J. Ramos — take the mound. It had the feel of an audition for the closer’s role, given that Ramos was likely to be moved at any time. After letting Scott Schebler lead off the inning with a no-doubter blast to right field, Tazawa set the next three Reds down in order.

Shortly after the game, it became apparent why Don Mattingly didn’t call upon Ramos. The Marlins dealt their closer to the Mets in exchange for a couple of prospects: righty Merandy Gonzalez and outfielder Ricardo Cespedes. Before going to Tazawa, Mattingly brought in Dustin McGowan to hold the game at 3-3 in the seventh inning, and in the eighth inning, he summoned Drew Steckenrider to protect the four-run lead built in the bottom of the seventh. With Kyle Barraclough (shoulder) and Nick Wittgren (elbow) on the DL, it would not be surprising to see McGowan and Steckenrider in some future high-leverage situations. However, according to MLB.com, the Marlins are expected to activate Brad Ziegler (back) on Saturday. He will probably present the strongest challenge to Tazawa as the team’s future closer, though Ziegler has been out for more than a month, so he could conceivably start off in some lower-leverage situations upon his return.

The Mets are looking to Ramos to set up for Jeurys Familia in 2018, but owners should not plan on dropping him. They could still deal Addison Reed before Monday’s trade deadline, and Ramos would be a strong candidate to take over the closer’s role.

The Rays also made some waves in the reliever market, albeit smaller ones. On Thursday, they acquired Dan Jennings from the White Sox, giving up first base prospect Casey Gillaspie. They added another former Marlin on Friday, getting Steve Cishek from the Mariners for Erasmo Ramirez, who returns to Seattle after two-and-a-half seasons in Tampa Bay. Neither Jennings nor Cishek has been added to the Rays’ portion of the grid below, as their roles have yet to be defined. Pitching coach Jim Hickey told the Tampa Bay Times that they could be used “from the middle innings of the game on.”

In Wednesday’s Bullpen Report, I wrote that it seemed like Blake Treinen was nearly a lock to become the Athletics’ closer, but in the two days since, that situation has gotten more complicated. After Santiago Casilla blew the save and took the loss against the Blue Jays on Wednesday, Bob Melvin turned to Treinen with a one-run lead against the Jays in the bottom of the ninth on Thursday. Kendrys Morales erased the lead with a solo shot — his second home run of the game. (It was Morales who also hit the game-winner on Wednesday.) Then on Friday, Melvin told the San Jose Mercury News he will look to several relievers — namely, Casilla, Treinen and Ryan Dull — to handle the closer duties. He also intimated that Frankie Montas could get a look in save situations later in the season.

Joaquin Benoit received one of the more unconventional saves on Friday night. With the Phillies leading 8-3, he entered the game in the eighth inning with two outs and the bases full of Braves. After retiring Ender Inciarte, he came back out for a 1-2-3 ninth inning. Given that the Phillies tacked two runs onto their lead in the bottom of the eighth, we shouldn’t read anything into Hector Neris not appearing in this contest. After some tumultuous stretches this season, Neris has found some consistency and should be safe in the closer’s role. He has allowed one run over his last seven appearances covering 6 2/3 innings. Over that stretch, Neris has thrown strikes at a 75 percent rate while inducing swinging strikes at a 19 percent rate.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
ARI	Fernando Rodney	Archie Bradley	Jorge de la Rosa
ATL	Jim Johnson	Arodys Vizcaino	Jose Ramirez
BAL	Zach Britton	Brad Brach	Mychal Givens
BOS	Craig Kimbrel	Joe Kelly	Matt Barnes	Carson Smith
CHC	Wade Davis	Koji Uehara	Carl Edwards Jr.
CWS	Tyler Clippard	Gregory Infante	Jake Petricka	Nate Jones
CIN	Raisel Iglesias	Michael Lorenzen	Drew Storen
CLE	Cody Allen	Andrew Miller	Bryan Shaw
COL	Greg Holland	Jake McGee	Adam Ottavino
DET	Justin Wilson	Alex Wilson	Shane Greene
HOU	Ken Giles	Chris Devenski	Will Harris
KC	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Brandon Maurer
LAA	Bud Norris	Cam Bedrosian	David Hernandez	Huston Street
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Pedro Baez	Brandon Morrow
MIA	Junichi Tazawa	Drew Steckenrider	Dustin McGowan	Kyle Barraclough
MIL	Corey Knebel	Anthony Swarzak	Jacob Barnes
MIN	Brandon Kintzler	Taylor Rogers	Matt Belisle	Glen Perkins
NYM	Addison Reed	A.J. Ramos	Jerry Blevins	Jeurys Familia
NYY	Aroldis Chapman	Dellin Betances	David Robertson
OAK	Santiago Casilla	Blake Treinen	Ryan Dull
PHI	Hector Neris	Luis Garcia	Joaquin Benoit
PIT	Felipe Rivero	Juan Nicasio	Daniel Hudson
STL	Trevor Rosenthal	Brett Cecil	Seung Hwan Oh
SD	Brad Hand	Kirby Yates	Phil Maton	Carter Capps
SF	Sam Dyson	Hunter Strickland	George Kontos	Mark Melancon
SEA	Edwin Diaz	David Phelps	Nick Vincent
TB	Alex Colome	Tommy Hunter	Brad Boxberger
TEX	Alex Claudio	Jose Leclerc	Keone Kela
TOR	Roberto Osuna	Ryan Tepera	Joe Smith	Danny Barnes
WSH	Sean Doolittle	Ryan Madson	Matt Albers	Koda Glover

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