Bullpen Report: May 18, 2016

• The Shawn Tolleson ride is over (at least, for now). One night after giving up a walk-off granny to Khris Davis, the Rangers righty was relieved of his ninth inning duties. He hasn’t been quite as bad as the 9+ ERA would indicate (.351 BABIP with a near-career norm LD%), but the walks are up and the whiffs are (way) down. Neither are a good combination. Unfortunately for Tolleson, this may not be a temporary demotion, either. Sam Dyson takes over the gig and has one of the most lethal sinkers in the game. He also has seen a drop in K% in 2016 but you can get away with that when you are getting groundballs on 70% of those put in play against you. Obviously Dyson is a must-own across the board, although he was likely gone in the majority of leagues where saves are at a premium long ago. If you’re a Tolleson owner — first, sorry — but I’d try and spin him as a “just-taking-a-break-closer” to a less suspecting owner — I don’t think he’s getting the saves back anytime soon.

• Jumbo Diaz is back and he’s back big! Well, he’s back at least. After posting a 15/2 K/BB over 10 innings at Triple-A, the Reds figured “hey, can’t be any worse than what we have going on right now.” Diaz got into today’s game and was far from lights out, however, allowing a run over an 1.1 innings of work. Of course, the Cincy bullpen did what the Cincy bullpen does, with Tony Cingrani taking the BS after giving up a 2-run, game-tying home run to Rajai Davis (of all folks). This bullpen continues to be a shade of a mix of red and black — Ross Ohlendorf did toss a scoreless eighth today and will jump back to the top of the grid as “most likely to maybe get a chance to blow the next save.” Given Diaz’s peripherals (2.84 SIERA) last year (and in the minors this year), I think he has a legitimate shot to garner saves in this pen. But, you know… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

• Liam Hendriks (deleted stuff) remains hurt.

• Quick hits: Jeremy Jeffress blew a save for the first time in 2016. It was bound to happen and the fact that it happened against the Cubs makes it all the less worrisome. Jeanmar Gomez keeps trucking along. Sure the high-3.00s DIPS-predictors aren’t ideal, but he’s just good enough to keep some form of grasp on the closer role in Philly. Dan Otero picked up a scab save in late innings against the aforementioned dumpster fire Reds. He has a sub-3.00 SIERA on the young season, so we’ll sneak him onto the grid for now, but Cody Allen remains the guy to own here. Brad Boxberger made his second rehab appearance tonight. If I was more sure he’d take over the ninth inning right away, I’d flip the Tampa Bay pen to red, but Alex Colome has been pretty damn good so far. Keep both owned until Boxy is back in the bigs and we get a better feel here.

Closer Grid:

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