Bullpen Report: June 19, 2016

Sorry for a belated Bullpen Report as one forgot to click the submit button last night. Anywho, onto the updates…

• The Twins closing situation has largely been a bit of a circus but current closer Brandon Kintzler came in for a four out save last night and nailed down his second save of the season. He also allowed a solo shot but considering how poorly Kevin Jepsen and co. have been, that goes down as a fairly clean save in Minnesota. Fernando Abad didn’t enter the game and he has struggled of late allowing three earned runs on Saturday after allowing a home run on Thursday as well. He’s still a high leverage lefty but is firmly behind Kintzler at the moment. Kevin Jepsen blew the lead on Saturday but it was the first runs he allowed in his last five appearances and if Kintzler were to struggle, Jepsen could re-enter the mix along with Michael Tonkin who has been successful this year with a 3.09/3.47/3.78 ERA/FIP/xFIP line. Trevor May is still recovering from a sore back and had his bullpen session moved to Tuesday. 

• It wasn’t a save situation but David Robertson struggled in a tie game in the ninth this afternoon, allowing four baserunners and the game winning run against the Indians. Those runs inflated Robertson’s ERA to 3.95 and while his FIP looks more like his usual self (3.15) his 9.89 K/9 and 5.27 BB/9 would represent career lows. Robertson’s velocity is still in line with what we would expect but it’s worth keeping an eye on his control. His job isn’t in danger but if Robertson is still walking ~14% of the batters he faces moving forward, things could get murkier.

• Trevor Rosenthal allowed two runs without recording an out on Saturday and his the previous appearance he allowed four baserunners and two runs while only recording one out. On the year he’s supporting a 4.91/4.04/3.61 pitching line and has generally been far less effective than Kevin Siegrist and Seung Hwan Oh.  Mike Matheny threw support behind Rosie saying that they would have gone to him with a lead Sunday but I’m changing this situation to yellow. A move isn’t imminent but saves are saves are saves and I would look to pick up Siegrist and Oh as things could change fast if Rosenthal’s struggles continue.

• A.J. Ramos threw a perfect ninth inning and is now 22-22 on saves this year. Also perfect on the year in his own way is Fernando Rodney who maintained his 0.00 while striking out the side for his 14th save.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Daniel Hudson	Tyler Clippard
Atlanta	Arodys Vizcaino	Jim Johnson	Hunter Cervenka
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Mychal Givens	Brad Brach	Darren O’Day
Boston	Craig Kimbrel	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Justin Grimm
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Nate Jones	Zach Duke
Cincy	Tony Cingrani	Ross Ohlendorf	Blake Wood	Jumbo Diaz
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Dan Otero
Colorado	Carlos Estevez	Jason Motte	Boone Logan	Jake McGee
Detroit	Francisco Rodriguez	Justin Wilson	Shane Greene	Bruce Rondon
Houston	Will Harris	Ken Giles	Luke Gregerson
KC	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria
LAA	Huston Street	Fernando Salas	Cam Bedrosian	Joe Smith
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Pedro Baez	Joe Blanton	Yimi Garcia
Miami	A.J. Ramos	David Phelps	Kyle Barraclough
Milwaukee	Jeremy Jeffress	Will Smith	Tyler Thornburg
Minnesota	Brandon Kintzler	Fernando Abad	Kevin Jepsen	Glen Perkins
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Addison Reed	Jim Henderson
NY (AL)	Aroldis Chapman	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances
Oakland	Ryan Madson	Sean Doolittle	John Axford
Philly	Jeanmar Gomez	Hector Neris	David Hernandez
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Neftali Feliz	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist	Seung Hwan Oh
SD	Fernando Rodney	Ryan Buchter	Brandon Maurer
SF	Santiago Casilla	Cory Gearrin	Hunter Strickland	Sergio Romo
Seattle	Steve Cishek	Joaquin Benoit	Nick Vincent
TB	Alex Colome	Erasmo Ramirez	Xavier Cedeno	Brad Boxberger
Texas	Sam Dyson	Jake Diekman	Matt Bush	Keone Kela
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Jason Grilli	Gavin Floyd	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Shawn Kelley	Felipe Rivero	Sammy Solis	Jonathan Papelbon

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