Bullpen Report: May 18, 2018

After seeking a second opinion on a course of action for his damaged UCL, Keynan Middleton has opted to undergo Tommy John surgery.  He came off the 10-day disabled list on May 10 after a minimum stay for right elbow inflammation, and he made just three appearances before exiting early in his most recent appearance on Sunday.

As has been the case for much of this season, the Angels’ closer situation is murky at best. Jim Johnson appeared to be emerging as the closer during Middleton’s initial absence, but he no longer looks like a candidate. His two most recent appearances have come with the Angels in a deficit, including Thursday’s seventh-inning outing against the Rays. Johnson entered with the Angels down only by a run, but he coughed up four runs (three earned) in just one-third of an inning.

The Angels’ most recent save belongs to Justin Anderson, who preserved a 2-1 win over the Astros on Monday, so by default, he resides in the closer’s column in the grid below. However, as he has been thrust into higher-leverage situations of late, his appearances have become more of an adventure. One has to figure that Blake Parker and Cam Bedrosian remain in the saves mix as well.

Bud Norris appears to be clearly in command of the Cardinals’ closer situation, but is Jordan Hicks long for his setup role? Entering Thursday’s loss to the Phillies, Hicks was showing no outward signs of being in danger of getting demoted to a lower-profile role, as he sported an 0.92 ERA. However, he achieved that mark despite recording eight strikeouts and 14 walks over 19.2 innings. Hicks was called upon to keep the Cardinals close with a 1-0 deficit, but three of the first four batters he faced reached with a single, the last of which brought in two runs.

Hicks did not get blasted, as the last two singles he allowed were soft line drives, but he has been putting himself at risk of putting too many runners on base, given his 16.5 percent walk rate and 6.6 percent swinging strike rate. Even in the absence of saves, Hicks is owned in a fair number of leagues, particularly on CBSSports.com (11 percent ownership rate) and Fantrax (21 percent ownership rate), but it may be time for at least some of his owners to move on.

Even though the Phillies built a four-run run lead against Hicks and Sam Tuivailala, Gabe Kapler dropped some more hints about how he might manage his bullpen going forward. He brought Seranthony Dominguez in to relieve Vince Velasquez with one out in the seventh inning, when the Phillies’ lead was just one run. With a larger cushion, Yacksel Rios started off the eighth inning, but after walking Tommy Pham on four pitches, Kapler turned to Luis Garcia. Though he got two outs, Garcia struggled and needed to be bailed out by lefty Adam Morgan, who was brought in for the matchup against Matt Carpenter. Mike Matheny countered by pinch hitting with Harrison Bader, who ended the inning on a flyout.

Pedro Florimon’s two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning eliminated the save situation created by Rios and Garcia, but it’s notable that Kapler did not use Edubray Ramos in the eighth inning. Ramos did come out for the ninth, scattering three singles to clinch the Phillies’ win, though without a save. Maybe Ramos’ difficult inning will give Kapler pause to use him the next time there is an actual save situation, but for now, it appears that Ramos is his favored save candidate.

Going into Thursday night’s game against the Rangers, it had been eight days since Nate Jones‘ last save chance, but he is still part of the White Sox’s closer committee. That became evident with Rick Renteria using Jones to record the save with a 4-2 lead in the ninth inning. Jones began by hitting Isiah Kiner-Falefa with a 96 mph fastball, but he escaped the inning, with a Robinson Chirinos single being the only other damage.

The “Not Very Stable” label has been lifted from the Tigers’ portion of the closer grid. Joe Jimenez struck out the side in the eighth inning and Shane Greene pitched a perfect ninth inning for the save against the Mariners. Both are on a roll. Greene has allowed one earned run over 9.1 innings in May with 12 strikeouts, three walks and a 56.5 percent ground ball rate. Jimenez has allowed three run in his last five appearances, but all were unearned. Over that stretch, he has nine strikeouts and no walks over 4.2 innings.

Quick hits: Jones’ save against the Rangers was made possible in part by Jose Leclerc. The Rangers were up 2-0 when Leclerc entered in the eighth inning, but he let the White Sox back in the game on a throwing error to first base. After the error, Leclerc walked three straight batters, though the first walk was intentional. He has recently worked his way into a setup role but has thrown only 25 of his last 49 pitches for strikes…Archie Bradley did not pitch on Thursday, but he enters Friday’s schedule with the highest O-Contact% (84.5 percent) of all qualified relievers. That has contributed to Bradley’s swinging strike rate dropping from last year’s mark of 10.0 percent to 7.8 percent and his strikeout rate falling from 27.2 percent to 24.1 percent.