Bullpen Report: May 1, 2019

Heading into Tuesday night’s game with the Pirates, Jose Leclerc had not pitched in a high-leverage situation in nine days. His two most recent appearances occurred in blowouts, as he tried to work out the command issues that had plagued him for much of the season. Chris Woodward ended Leclerc’s sabbatical from closing on Tuesday night, deploying him in a save situation, as the Rangers held a 3-0 lead going into the top of the ninth.

Leclerc had actually been highly effective against righties this season, holding them to a .130 Avg prior to Tuesday, but to shut down the Pirates, he had to run the gauntlet of switch-hitting Bryan Reynolds and Cole Tucker and left-handed Adam Frazier. He did not retire any of them, and Frazier’s single scored Reynolds, cutting the Rangers’ lead to two runs. Leclerc was on the verge of getting out of the jam, striking out Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco in succession, but Josh Bell (another switch-hitter) laced a game-tying double into left center. Fortunately for Leclerc, Bell unsuccessfully tried to extend the double into a triple, so he avoided further damage.

However, the Pirates prevailed in extra innings, and the damage may already be done to Leclerc’s status as the Rangers’ closer. He has not been removed from the role yet, but after the game, Woodward said he and Leclerc were “going to discuss” his role. I am sure there are examples of managers saying they were going to consider a change at closer and then deciding the stick with the incumbent. I just can’t recall any.

The obvious candidates to replace Leclerc are setup relievers Shawn Kelley and Chris Martin. Kelley has been the most effective reliever in the Rangers’ bullpen by far, so he may have the upper hand for save opportunities in the near future. While he is worthy of speculation in deeper formats, Leclerc could return to the role once he works out his command issues (assuming he is removed in the first place).

For the second game in a row, Brad Ausmus called upon Ty Buttrey in the eighth inning to set up for a potential save, and in both cases, Hansel Robles followed him in the ninth. In the case of Tuesday night’s game versus the Blue Jays, the Angels were locked in a 3-3 tie heading into the top of the eighth, and Buttrey kept it that way, posting a 1-2-3 inning. Brian Goodwin’s solo home run in the bottom of the inning delivered a save opportunity to Robles, and Robles converted it, overcoming a leadoff walk to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

It’s still too soon to say that Robles will get the larger share of save opportunities in what is likely to be a closer tandem with Buttrey, but he is still underowned. Robles’ ownership rate is less than half that of Buttrey on CBS, ESPN and Yahoo.

Edwin Diaz got the night off on Tuesday, so when the Mets found themselves with a 2-1 lead over the Reds heading into the eighth inning, Mickey Callaway turned to Jeurys Familia for a two-inning save. The eighth-inning went well enough, with Familia yielding only a Joey Votto single, and Michael Conforto’s RBI single in the bottom of the inning gave him an extra run of cushion.

It turned out that he needed a little more cushion. Familia walked Jesse Winker and then allowed consecutive singles to Jose Iglesias, Kyle Farmer and Jose Peraza, all with two outs.

Peraza’s single knotted the game up, and David Hernandez kept the game tied in the bottom of the ninth. With the game still tied in the 10th, David Bell brought in Raisel Iglesias to extend the game another inning, but it never got to the 11th. Iglesias gave up a leadoff double to J.D. Davis, which was followed by a Jeff McNeil single and a walk-off sacrifice fly from Peter Alonso.  The loss dropped Iglesias to 1-4 and lifted his ERA to 3.68. While he has compiled a robust 36.5 percent strikeout rate, Iglesias has a minuscule 18.8 percent ground ball rate and high average exit velocities on flies and liners (94.9 mph) and grounders (92.9 mph), according to Baseball Savant.

Josh Hader has the same sort of two-sided profile — a cartoonish 56.4 percent strikeout rate to go with a 20.0 percent ground ball rate. The lefty collected his seventh save on Tuesday night, getting the final two outs in the Brewers’ 4-3 win over the Rockies, but he also gave up a home run for the fourth time in his last five outings. Over that span, Hader has put up one of the strangest slash lines you’ll ever see: .190/.261/.762.

Hader only had a save chance because Junior Guerra had walked Daniel Murphy and allowed Nolan Arenado’s RBI double, but it should be noted that this was Guerra’s third inning of work. In both the seventh and eighth innings, Guerra struck out all three batters he faced.

Quick hits: Kirby Yates (14), Shane Greene (12), Brad Hand (9), Felipe Vazquez (7) and Greg Holland (6) all recorded saves on Tuesday night…Both the Mariners and Cubs were missing a key late-inning reliever in their Tuesday night game. With Roenis Elias out with what Mariners beat writer Ryan Divish termed “some soreness,” righty Brandon Brennan stayed in with two outs and a runner on second in the eighth inning to face Kyle Schwarber. The Cubs’ left fielder smashed his fourth homer, giving his team a 6-5 lead. Steve Cishek got the final four outs for the save, as Pedro Strop was getting rested…Brandon Morrow (elbow) may not return to the Cubs any sooner than early July. He had a Synvisc injection on Monday…Jordan Hicks got Tuesday night off, so Andrew Miller got a two-out save against the Nationals…After a difficult start to 2019, Joe Jimenez has found his groove. He pitched a perfect eighth inning against the Phillies for his sixth hold. He now has 10 strikeouts over his last 4.2 innings with no walks…Lou Trivino (thumb) is expected back for Wednesday’s game at Boston.