Bullpen Report: March 31, 2016

• Well it didn’t take long for us to have our first closer controversy in 2016 as John Gibbons announced that Roberto Osuna will be their closer on Opening Day. After trading Ben Revere for Drew Storen this offseason, it was assumed that Storen would be in the driver’s seat for the closing gig in Toronto but 2015 rookie sensation Roberto Osuna should take the job and run with it again. Adding insult to injury, after learning about his demotion from the closer’s chair, Storen allowed two runs in one inning of work yesterday. For those of you who had their drafts already, I’m sorry for your loss and you should try to convince the commissioner to hold the draft closer to Opening Day. For those of you who have not had their draft, please bump up Osuna’s value. While there is very stiff competition at the top of the relief rankings (these are a bit outdated and we hope to have an update soon), Osuna was darn impressive as a 20-year old and I could see him touching the top ten by the end of 2016.

• Andrew Miller fractured his right (non-throwing wrist) earlier this week, but he plans to pitch through it. While Miller is fortunate it’s his right and not left wrist that is hurt, he still has an injured wrist and just because he says he will pitch through it doesn’t mean he will be able to for the Yankees. If Miller were to miss anytime, Dellin Betances would slide right in for the closer roll…until Aroldis Chapman returns from susepension and moves Miller and Betances back to setting up. Considering he was originally only going to be closing for 30 games before the injury, I would knock Miller down in your pre-draft rankings until we see how he does moving forward.

• FanGraph’s own, Jeff Zimmerman updates a valuable resource with his changes in Spring Training velocities. These aren’t the gospel as pitchers can gradually gain in strength as the spring and season goes on but it’s worth noting a few pitchers who have seen some larger decreases. Those players include among others Wade Davis (-1.5 mph), Fernando Rodney (-1.9 mph) and Huston Street (-1.9 mph). I wouldn’t immediately look to trade Wade Davis or avoid him in drafts, but considering he was in the top tier of closers I would draft someone else in his tier like Kenly Jansen or Craig Kimbrel ahead of him, even if I originally preferred Wade Davis. Also worth noting however is that Wade Davis’ was sitting at -2 mph earlier this spring and he’s now at – 1.5, so he’s already starting to alleviate some of the concern. As for the others, drafting Rodney’s backups a round or two earlier could be a solid strategy as well.

• This doesn’t make it official, but Astros beat writer Brian McTaggart certainly feels strongly that Ken Giles will be the closer. I’ll leave the grid yellow for now since it’s not attached to an announcement by A.J. Hinch, but Giles is definitely in the driver’s seat for the ninth inning.

• Updating the closer grid is a process as teams figure out their bullpen situations and I have updated a few of the totem poles below. As always, please keep giving us feedback as we perfect the grid before the season starts.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Tyler Clippard	Daniel Hudson
Atlanta	Jason Grilli	Arodys Vizcaino	Jim Johnson
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Mychal Givens
Boston	Craig Kimbrel	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Carson Smith
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Justin Grimm
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Jacob Petricka	Nate Jones
Cincy	J.J. Hoover	Jumbo Diaz	Tony Cingrani
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Zach McAllister
Colorado	Jake McGee	Jason Motte	Chad Qualls	Adam Ottavino
Detroit	Francisco Rodriguez	Mark Lowe	Justin Wilson	Bruce Rondon
Houston	Ken Giles	Luke Gregerson	Pat Neshek
KC	Wade Davis	Joakim Soria	Kelvin Herrera
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Fernando Salas
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Chris Hatcher	Yimi Garcia
Miami	A.J. Ramos	Mike Dunn	Bryan Morris	Carter Capps
Milwaukee	Jeremy Jeffress	Corey Knebel	Michael Blazek	Will Smith
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Kevin Jepsen	Trevor May
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Addison Reed	Hansel Robles
NY (AL)	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances	Jacob Lindgren	Aroldis Chapman
Oakland	Sean Doolittle	John Axford	Ryan Madson
Philly	Andrew Bailey	Dalier Hinojosa	David Hernandez
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Neftali Feliz
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist	Jonathan Broxton
SD	Fernando Rodney	Kevin Quackenbush	Brandon Maurer
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Hunter Strickland
Seattle	Steve Cishek	Joaquin Benoit	Tony Zych
TB	Alex Colome	Danny Farquharr	Xavier Cedeno	Brad Boxberger
Texas	Shawn Tolleson	Keone Kela	Tom Wilhelmsen
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Drew Storen	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Jonathan Papelbon	Shawn Kelley	Blake Treinen

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