Bullpen Report: June 20, 2016

Since it’s a slow day on the mound for relievers, here’s a brief rumor roundup:

• We mentioned Fernando Rodney’s success earlier today and it seems like his performance is “not going unnoticed by contenders” according to Peter Gammons. The Padres have about three trade pieces – Wil Myers, Drew Pomeranz and Fernando Rodney. It’s unlikely they trade the first two and maybe increasingly likely that Rodney goes. If Rodney is moved, expect breakout lefty Ryan Buchter to replace him in the ninth. Although 29 years old, Buchter has a history of striking out batters with iffy control in the minors and so far this year he’s supporting a 1.74/2.51/3.49 ERA/FIP/xFIP pitching line with a fantastic 37% strikeout rate and a walk rate of 10.7% which is above the league average of 8.2%.

• The Yankees are currently still four games back of the Wild Card and although they’re unlikely to unload any pieces before we get closer to the deadline, it’s becoming somewhat likely that they move a reliever if you ask me. The Giants, Cubs, Dodgers, Nationals and others are also likely in the market for a major reliever. Theo Epstein is appropriately defending his bullpen at the moment but the rumors persist with the Cubs linked to Aroldis Chapman and/or Andrew Miller.

And on to the games:

• Brad Ziegler only needed 9 pitches to throw a scoreless inning for his 15th save, lowering his ERA to 2.64 on the year. Ziegler doesn’t have particularly impressive control and doesn’t get many whiffs but his worm killing magic (63% ground ball percentage) is doing the trick yet again in Arizona. Small sample alert but he’s even been impressive against lefties, allowing a .278 wOBA against them thus far this year. Although the Diamondbacks are far back of the playoff race and have a compelling closer and set up man (Daniel Hudson) to trade at the deadline, it looks like they might be looking at extensions. It’s not necessarily the strategy that I would take but that seems to be how business is conducted in the desert. Expect Ziegler to remain in Arizona for now and continue to get saves.

• Mark Melancon saved his 20th game for the struggling Pirates tonight. It’s tough for a small market team like the Pirates to go all in for a Wild Card and with the Cubs crushing this year, they could be sellers at the deadline. Melancon has been as steady as they come both this year and over the past four seasons and he could be on the move as well as he is in his walk year in Pittsburgh.

• Cody Allen received a save opp after Erasmo Ramirez gave up three runs in the eighth inning, and closed his 14th door on the season. Erasmo Ramirez hit a real rough patch in May allowing 11 runs in 14.1 innings at one point but he’s been better of late before tonight’s outing. I’ll still keep him as second in line in Tampa but it’s save to say Alex Colome’s job is still secure.

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.]