Bullpen Report: June 1, 2018

The Pirates may have been insisting that Felipe Vazquez is healthy, but something appears to be wrong. After rebounding from a string of subpar performances with solid outings on Tuesday and Wednesday, Vazquez blew his fourth save in 12 days on Thursday night against the Cardinals. He was entrusted with an 8-5 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning, but before he could get an out, he loaded the bases and then gave up a two-RBI single to Luke Voit. (In fairness to Vazquez, Tommy Pham reached base by way of a Sean Rodriguez fielding error.) On Vazquez’s very next pitch, Yairo Munoz homered on a 96 mph fastball in the middle of the plate for a walk-off victory.

Clint Hurdle summed up his closer’s performance when he said Vazquez “couldn’t get any swings outside the zone and they barreled up everything in the zone.” That has not only been the case for Thursday’s performance. Over his last six appearances, Vazquez has induced chases on only 26.0 percent of his pitches that have missed the strike zone. He has allowed 23 hit balls over this stretch, and nine of them have been line drives. These trends have contributed to Vazquez allowing nine runs (seven earned) on 12 hits and three walks over just 3.2 innings.

While it is easy to jump to the conclusion that Vazquez is not at 100 percent, there have been no reports of any new or recurring health issues. Maybe he wasn’t ready to pitch on three consecutive days. There is no clear explanation as to why Vazquez has flailed for the better part of the last two weeks, but whatever the reason may be, he can’t be long for the closer’s role if he does not rebound quickly and with consistency.

What’s particularly curious is that, while Vazquez was allowed to pitch on three consecutive days shortly after leaving a game hurt, none of Hurdle’s established setup relievers — Michael Feliz, Edgar Santana and Richard Rodriguez — were used in Thursday’s game, even though none had pitched on Wednesday. For the second game in a row, Hurdle used Kyle Crick in a hold situation in the eighth inning. On both occasions, Crick pitched a 1-2-3 inning.

The Pirates’ situation is not an easy one to figure out right now, but it does make sense to speculate on Crick with a pickup if it’s not too costly. Unlike Vazquez, he has been good at getting chases (33.5 percent O-Swing%), and while he has just a 9.8 percent swinging strike rate, the contact he has been allowing has rarely been damaging. Crick ranks 10th among qualified relievers with a 27.8 percent soft contact rate and his Value Hit rate on xStats.org is a minuscule 1.3 percent.

While the Pirates’ closer situation hasn’t flipped yet, the Marlins’ has. Don Mattingly announced on Thursday that Brad Ziegler is no longer the team’s closer. While he has not officially designated a replacement, Mattingly’s comments after Wednesday’s loss to the Padres suggest that it will be Kyle Barraclough. In a sense, Barraclough has earned the promotion. Tayron Guerrero and Drew Steckenrider have not been reliable lately, and Barraclough has allowed one hit and no runs over his last nine appearances covering 8.2 innings. However, he has walked four batters and struck out only four over that span. For the month of May, Barraclough has induced chases on only 20.8 percent of his pitches outside of the strike zone. While he should provide some saves, Barraclough may not offer much help in any other categories.

Back on May 13, Gabe Kapler decided he was going to go without a dedicated closer, and he has stuck to his plan. The Phillies have presented their manager with six save situations since then, and five different relievers have handled them. On Thursday night, Seranthony Dominguez became the first Phillies reliever to record a second save under Kapler’s new plan, as he tossed two perfect innings to wrap up a 2-1 win over the Dodgers. The rookie is making a strong argument to be given the job full-time, as he has yet to allow a run or a walk in his first 13.2 major league innings. Dominguez also has 15 strikeouts and only two hits allowed (both singles). Of relievers with at least 10 innings pitched, he has the sixth-highest swinging strike rate (18.2 percent).

The Cardinals’ late-inning combo of Jordan Hicks and Bud Norris had been fairly steady of late, but both pitchers ran into trouble against the Pirates. Hicks was credited with a blown save after allowing Gregory Polanco‘s RBI double in the eighth inning, and he handed a two-on, two-outs situation to Norris three batters later. Then the Pirates jumped ahead on Francisco Cervelli’s three-run homer, and Norris was promptly replaced by Mike Mayers. To come full circle, it was Cervelli’s home run that ultimately gave Vazquez the opportunity to blow the save and the game in the ninth inning.

Quick hits: It’s been just 13 days since Tony Cingrani returned from his stay on the 10-day disabled list with left shoulder inflammation and promptly gave up three runs in his first outing back. Since then, he has made six straight appearances without yielding a run or a walk. Over that six-inning span, he has struck out 11 batters, and the only damage against him has been a pair of singles. Cingrani appears to have superceded Josh Fields as the Dodgers’ eighth-inning setup reliever and has been moved up in the closer grid…Cody Allen has been the only reliable arm in the Indians’ bullpen, and he seems to be on a particularly good run lately, allowing one hit over his last 5.1 innings. He has also secured three saves during this stretch, including the one on Thursday night against the Twins. However, during this stretch, he has only five swinging strikes on 76 pitches for a 6.6 percent rate. It may not be a coincidence that four of the six appearances came against the Astros, who collectively have a 9.7 percent swinging strike rate…Phil Hughes made his Padres debut on Thursday night, starting off the ninth inning with an 8-3 lead to protect against the Marlins. He was one strike away from ending the game with a scoreless frame, but instead, he allowed a Yadiel Rivera single and a walk to Derek Dietrich that loaded the bases. At that point, Andy Green called for closer Brad Hand, who struck out J.T. Realmuto on three pitches, thus notching his 17th save.