Bullpen Report: July 31, 2014

As the sun sets on one of the busiest non-waiver trade deadlines in recent memory, it’s somewhat surprising that not many of the deals involved relief arms. This is partly due to the fact that Joakim Soria, Jason Frasor, Huston Street and Joe Thatcher switched uniforms already, but players like Joaquin Benoit, Chad Qualls and Addison Reed that have recently been rumored to be on the move, actually stayed put.

In one deadline deal that involved one of the more coveted relief arms, the Boston Red Sox sent Andrew Miller to the Baltimore Orioles for left-handed pitching prospect Eduardo Rodriguez. Miller will join fellow lefties Zach Britton, Brian Matusz and T.J. McFarland in the Orioles bullpen for the time being, but with the O’s needing to make a corresponding move to make room for the 29-year-old Miller, McFarland could be the “odd man out.” Miller will be a free agent come season’s end, but Baltimore felt his useful splits — he’s holding LHB to a .194 wOBA and RHB to a .243 wOBA — justified dealing their third-best prospect for. For now, I’m going to slot the newly acquired Miller and his ~33% K-BB% in the second chair, but that is subject to change.

Thirty-year-old right-hander Huston Street, in the midst of an All-Star season, landed in Anaheim as part of a six-player trade just over a week ago that bolstered an Angels’ bullpen poised for a playoff push. Tonight, Street dished a clean bottom-half of the 13th in Baltimore to pick up his fourth save of his short Angels tenure. The impressive season for the veteran continues, as Street is now 28-of-29 in save opportunities, boasts a 0.95 ERA (2.65 FIP) with a ~23% K-BB% in 38 appearances between San Diego and Anaheim.

Some felt Addison Reed could be a candidate to switch uniforms at today’s trade deadline, but like many rumors, nothing of the sort materialized. So Reed trotted to the bump in the ninth-inning to protect a three-run Dbacks cushion over the Pirates — business as usual — and he did just that. The former Aztec induced a leadoff groundout, then sandwich a double off the bat of Josh Harrison between two strikeouts to seal the deal for his 27th save. He’s 26-of-31 in save chances this season with a 3.86 ERA (4.60 FIP) and a ~28% K%.

Quick Hitters: Fernando Rodney (30), Greg Holland (29) and Aroldis Chapman (24) each notched saves this evening. Hector Rondon surrendered back-to-back singles in the top of the ninth-inning, but retired three consecutive Rockies to escape with his 14th save of the season. Casey Janssen notched his 18th save of the ‘14 season on 13 pitches, despite yielding a two-out free pass. Jake Petricka allowed a one-out single to Miguel Cabrera, but induced a couple of ground outs to secure his sixth save of the year on just ten pitches.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Addison Reed	Brad Ziegler	Oliver Perez
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	David Carpenter	Shae Simmons
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Tommy Hunter	Andrew Miller
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Edward Mujica
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Brian Schlitter	Neil Ramirez
CHI (AL)	Jacob Petricka	Javy Guerra	Ronald Belisario	Matt Lindstom
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Jonathan Broxton	Sam LeCure	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	John Axford
Colorado	LaTroy Hawkins	Adam Ottavino	Rex Brothers
Detroit	Joe Nathan	Joakim Soria	Joba Chamberlain	Joel Hanrahan
Houston	Chad Qualls	Tony Sipp	Josh Fields
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Jason Frasor
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Jason Grilli
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Brian Wilson	Brandon League
Miami	Steve Cishek	Bryan Morris	A.J. Ramos
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Will Smith	Brandon Kintzler	Jim Henderson
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Jenrry Mejia	Jeurys Familia	Vic Black	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	David Robertson	Dellin Betances	Adam Warren
Oakland	Sean Doolittle	Luke Gregerson	Dan Otero
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Ken Giles	Jake Diekman	Mike Adams
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Ernesto Frieri
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Pat Neshek	Jason Motte
SD	Joaquin Benoit	Kevin Quackenbush	Dale Thayer
SF	Santiago Casilla	Jeremy Affeldt	Sergio Romo
Seattle	Fernando Rodney	Danny Farquhar	Dominic Leone
TB	Jake McGee	Brad Boxberger	Grant Balfour
Texas	Neftali Feliz	Neal Cotts	Shawn Tolleson
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Aaron Loup	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Drew Storen	Tyler Clippard

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