Bullpen Report: June 13, 2017

Tuesday’s slate of games was a quiet one for saves. There were 16 contests in total, but only six relievers emerged with saves. One of them was Tyler Lyons, whose first career save was the result of a scoreless three-inning effort, in which he allowed three hits, walked none and struck out two.

Things were also eerily quiet on the Phillies’ closer front, as we are now a full week removed from when Pete Mackanin suggested that he may use Pat Neshek in the closer’s role over Hector Neris, at least on a temporary basis. They have gone 0-7 since then and have not had a ninth-inning save opportunity during that time. On Monday, they came close, as the Phillies entered the eighth with a 5-4 lead over the Red Sox. The curious thing was that Neshek had already been used in the seventh, and Mackanin brought Joaquin Benoit in to pitch the eighth. Benoit allowed a two-out solo home run to Hanley Ramirez, thus blowing the save as well as the chance for us to see if Neris would come in for the ninth inning.

On Tuesday, the visiting Phillies knotted the Red Sox at 3-3 in the sixth inning, and the score held until the decisive 12th frame. Yet neither Neshek nor Neris made an appearance, and ultimately, Luis Garcia coughed up Andrew Benintendi’s walk-off RBI single. Neris had pitched just once in the past week, so he was presumably available. Neshek appeared in each of the two previous games but threw a combined 13 pitches in those outings.

Mackanin is not using Neshek like a closer of late. Even if he does get some save chances in the days to come, it appears that the Phillies’ manager will be cautious with his usage, so those chances could be shared with Neris or another reliever. This looks like a situation that needs to be avoided if at all possible.

The same can be said about the Nationals’ situation. They did not need a closer on Tuesday, but on Monday, Dusty Baker called on Matt Albers with two outs in the eighth inning and a one-run lead. Albers stranded the two runners left to him by Enny Romero and Jacob Turner, but when he returned for the ninth inning, he gave up a three-run homer to Tyler Flowers. That was Albers’ second blown save in four tries.

Cam Bedrosian made his first rehab appearance in nine days, as he had aggravated his right groin strain. Bedrosian pitched a scoreless inning for Advanced Class A Inland Empire, allowing one hit and striking out two. Meanwhile, Bud Norris preserved the Angels’ 2-2 tie with the Yankees on Tuesday night, pitching a scoreless ninth inning with one hit and one strikeout. In his previous eight outings, Norris had been far from dominant. Though he allowed only two runs over 6 2/3 innings, Norris threw just 57 percent of his pitches for strikes while garnering whiffs on nine percent of his pitches. It’s not a bad time to pick up Bedrosian, particularly if you are a Norris owner.

Jose Leclerc is probably not going to be in line for saves anytime soon, but he is proving once again to be one of the better non-closers to own. In getting his first career win on Tuesday night at Houston, Leclerc showed he is back on track after showing some shaky control upon returning from the DL 10 days ago. In three appearances following that first post-DL outing, Leclerc has induced 14 whiffs on 52 pitches, recording six strikeouts in three innings. For the season, Leclerc has a 1.72 ERA, a 22.8 percent swinging strike rate and a 14.4 K/9 ratio.

Note: The Yankees-Angels game was still in progress at the time of this writing.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
ARI	Fernando Rodney	Archie Bradley	JJ Hoover
ATL	Jim Johnson	Arodys Vizcaino	Jose Ramirez
BAL	Brad Brach	Darren O’Day	Mychal Givens	Zach Britton
BOS	Craig Kimbrel	Matt Barnes	Heath Hembree	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	Cody Allen	Andrew Miller	Bryan Shaw
COL	Greg Holland	Jake McGee	Mike Dunn	Adam Ottavino
DET	Justin Wilson	Alex Wilson	Shane Greene
HOU	Ken Giles	Will Harris	Michael Feliz
KC	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Mike Minor
LAA	Bud Norris	David Hernandez	Blake Parker	Cam Bedrosian
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Pedro Baez	Josh Fields
MIA	A.J. Ramos	David Phelps	Kyle Barraclough
MIL	Corey Knebel	Jacob Barnes	Neftali Feliz
MIN	Brandon Kintzler	Matt Belisle	Taylor Rogers	Glen Perkins
NYM	Addison Reed	Jerry Blevins	Paul Sewald	Jeurys Familia
NYY	Dellin Betances	Tyler Clippard	Adam Warren	Aroldis Chapman
OAK	Santiago Casilla	Ryan Madson	Liam Hendriks	Sean Doolittle
PHI	Hector Neris	Pat Neshek	Edubray Ramos	Joaquin Benoit
PIT	Felipe Rivero	Juan Nicasio	Daniel Hudson
STL	Seung Hwan Oh	Trevor Rosenthal	Matt Bowman
SD	Brandon Maurer	Brad Hand	Ryan Buchter	Carter Capps
SF	Mark Melancon	Derek Law	Hunter Strickland
SEA	Edwin Diaz	James Pazos	Nick Vincent
TB	Alex Colome	Danny Farquhar	Tommy Hunter	Brad Boxberger
TEX	Matt Bush	Keone Kela	Jose Leclerc
TOR	Roberto Osuna	Joe Smith	Jason Grilli
WSH	Matt Albers	Shawn Kelley	Oliver Perez	Koda Glover

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