Bullpen Report: July 5, 2017

One day shy of the two-month mark for his stay on the DL, Zach Britton was activated by the Orioles on Wednesday. Buck Showalter wasted no time in getting Britton into a game, calling on him to pitch the seventh inning with a 4-0 deficit to the Brewers. To no one’s surprise, Showalter informed Britton that he plans on returning him to the closer’s role, but he would try to ease him back with a low-leverage situation in his first appearance off the DL.

Wednesday’s appearance certainly qualified, though Britton did not exactly ace this lower-stress situation. His velocity was down a tick, as he averaged 95.1 mph on his 16 two-seamers. Britton needed 19 pitches to get through the inning, throwing just eight strikes, a wild pitch and allowing a Hernan Perez single and an Eric Thames walk.

This lone inning should not make us question whether Britton will go back to closing games, but it could mean that he needs a little more time before being thrust back in the ninth inning. Brad Brach owners should keep him rostered just a little longer, and Britton owners may need to be patient in waiting for his next save.

Bud Norris was given a similarly gentle landing back in the Angels’ bullpen, pitching the seventh inning of Sunday’s contest against the Mariners, with his team down a pair of runs. With just that one post-DL appearance under his belt, Norris was given a save opportunity on Wednesday, with the Angels clinging to a 2-1 lead over the Twins, heading into the bottom of the ninth. He tossed a perfect frame with two strikeouts. With an 11.7 K/9 ratio and a pitcher-friendly home venue that can compensate for a low soft contact rate (14.8 percent entering Wednesday), Norris should be a reliable mixed league closer going forward.

Just when Keone Kela finally had an opportunity to show what he could do as a closer, with Jeff Banister eschewing Matt Bush for a committee, his sore shoulder earned him a spot on the 10-day disabled list. He will be eligible to  return on July 14 — the first day of games after the All-Star break. Should Kela be ready to rejoin the Rangers then, that would leave Banister with just a three-game series against the Angels this weekend to make do with Bush, Jose Leclerc and Alex Claudio to take care of save situations.

While Claudio doesn’t get much attention due to a lack of strikeouts (16.1 percent rate entering Wednesday), FIP, xFIP and SIERA all agree that he has been the best of the quartet in Banister’s committee. Profiling as a left-handed Brad Ziegler, Claudio boasts a 70.2 percent ground ball rate and has thrown 66.4 percent of his pitches for strikes.

While he may be the most effective reliever of the four, for fantasy purposes, it’s better to target Kela, who owns a healthy 35.3 percent strikeout rate to go with a 29.7 soft contact rate on flyballs, or Leclerc, who has serious control issues (59.2 percent strikes thrown) but trails only Craig Kimbrel in swinging strike rate with a 19.7 percent mark (minimum 2o innings). If both Kela and Leclerc are spoken for in your leagues, it couldn’t hurt to put a claim on Claudio. There probably won’t be much competition, and there is at least an outside chance he could emerge as the Rangers’ closer in the second half.

Luke Weaver was recalled by the Cardinals on Monday, and he appears to be settling in as a middle reliever. In two appearances against the Marlins, Weaver has pitched three scoreless innings, allowing three hits and a walk with two strikeouts. He has already thrown 54 pitches, but only two of them have been whiffs. If he piles up innings, Weaver could have some strikeout potential, but he is most likely going to have to start inducing some swinging strikes to have some deep-league value.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
ARI	Fernando Rodney	Archie Bradley	Jorge De La Rosa	JJ Hoover
ATL	Jim Johnson	Arodys Vizcaino	Jose Ramirez
BAL	Brad Brach	Zach Britton	Mychal Givens
BOS	Craig Kimbrel	Matt Barnes	Joe Kelly	Carson Smith
CHC	Wade Davis	Koji Uehara	Carl Edwards Jr.
CWS	David Robertson	Tommy Kahnle	Anthony Swarzak	Nate Jones
CIN	Raisel Iglesias	Michael Lorenzen	Drew Storen
CLE	Andrew Miller	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw
COL	Greg Holland	Adam Ottavino	Jake McGee
DET	Justin Wilson	Alex Wilson	Shane Greene
HOU	Ken Giles	Will Harris	Michael Feliz
KC	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Mike Minor
LAA	Bud Norris	Cam Bedrosian	Keynan Middleton
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Pedro Baez	Luis Avilan	Josh Fields
MIA	A.J. Ramos	David Phelps	Kyle Barraclough
MIL	Corey Knebel	Jacob Barnes	Carlos Torres
MIN	Brandon Kintzler	Taylor Rogers	Matt Belisle	Glen Perkins
NYM	Addison Reed	Jerry Blevins	Paul Sewald	Jeurys Familia
NYY	Aroldis Chapman	Dellin Betances	Tyler Clippard
OAK	Santiago Casilla	Sean Doolittle	Ryan Madson
PHI	Hector Neris	Pat Neshek	Luis Garcia
PIT	Felipe Rivero	Juan Nicasio	Daniel Hudson
STL	Trevor Rosenthal	Seung Hwan Oh	Matt Bowman
SD	Brandon Maurer	Brad Hand	Ryan Buchter	Carter Capps
SF	Sam Dyson	Hunter Strickland	George Kontos	Mark Melancon
SEA	Edwin Diaz	Nick Vincent	James Pazos
TB	Alex Colome	Tommy Hunter	Chase Whitley	Brad Boxberger
TEX	Matt Bush	Jose Leclerc	Alex Claudio	Keone Kela
TOR	Roberto Osuna	Ryan Tepera	Danny Barnes	Joe Smith
WSH	Enny Romero	Matt Albers	Blake Treinen	Koda Glover

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