Bullpen Report: May 2, 2018

When the Cardinals seemingly have one of the majors’ more stable closer situations, you know it’s been a strange night of baseball.

On Tuesday, prior to the Cardinals’ series opener against the White Sox, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak clarified what many suspected — that Bud Norris was back to being the team’s closer, and that Greg Holland would not “be used in the ninth inning at this time.” Given the way the Cardinals’ bullpen situation has played out so far in 2018, it would not have been surprising if Norris then went out and promptly blew a save against the White Sox. Instead, he was called upon to pitch the top of the ninth inning with a one-run deficit, and he tossed a perfect frame that turned into his first win of the season.

As was fitting on a night of bullpen implosions, it was a blown save that put Norris in the position to get the win. Fresh off of three days rest, Joakim Soria failed to protect that one-run lead, yielding a game-tying homer to Matt Carpenter and a walk-off RBI single to Yadier Molina. After starting off the season in a closer time-share with Nate Jones, Soria has been steadily taking on the White Sox’s save situations. There are no signs that his status is in danger of changing, but it is worth noting that he has a meager 27.3 percent ground ball rate and an inflated .222 Iso allowed. It is also worth noting that Soria has pitched all of 10.1 innings this season, and those marks could easily improve in the weeks to come.

Before Tuesday’s tumultuous slate of games began, the biggest closer news to emerge was the placing of Keynan Middleton on the 10-day disabled list with right elbow inflammation. For Middleton’s part, he told the Orange County Register he believes his injury is not serious, and that he hopes it will only require a minimum stay on the DL. He also revealed he was dealing with a sore elbow when he blew his first save of the season against the Yankees last Friday.

Mike Scioscia had an immediate opportunity to divulge his plan for replacing Middleton, as the Angels carried a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning of Tuesday night’s game against the Orioles. The Register reported that Jim Johnson and rookie Justin Anderson were possible options to close, but Scioscia had already summoned them in the seventh and eighth innings, so it was up to erstwhile closer Cam Bedrosian to convert the save. Instead, he allowed the Orioles to tie the game up and send it to the bottom of the ninth.

Lefty Richard Bleier did his job, getting Kole Calhoun to ground out, but fitting with the theme of the night, Orioles’ co-closer Brad Brach replaced him and promptly melted down. He loaded up the bases and, on an 0-2 pitch, allowed Justin Upton to end the game with an RBI single.

Neither Brach nor Darren O’Day has stepped up to run away with the closer’s job in Baltimore. Brach’s threw just 12 of his 20 pitches for strikes in Tuesday’s loss, and that mirrors the control issues that plagued him in the season’s first month. O’Day has been better overall, but he has already allowed three home runs, and a 27.6 percent ground ball rate could portend more trouble in the future. While O’Day would seem to have the upper hand on save chances right now, it’s conceivable that he could continue to split saves with Brach until Zach Britton (Achilles) returns. Britton is scheduled to throw on Wednesday, and if all goes well, he may soon go on a rehab assignment. He is currently aiming for a return in early June.

As for the Angels’ situation, perhaps either Anderson or Johnson will get the next save opportunity, It’s also worth mentioning that Jose Alvarez faced Chris Davis and Anthony Santander to start off the eighth inning on Tuesday, giving way to Johnson with right-handed Caleb Joseph due up. Alvarez has arguably been the Angels’ best reliever to date, so it would make sense for Scioscia to entrust him with a save chance if it involved retiring lefties and switch-hitters.

The Royals-Red Sox game featured dueling blown saves by closers who have been among the best so far this season. Craig Kimbrel, who had been 7 for 7 in his save opportunities, let a one-run lead slip away on Alex Gordon’s solo homer — his first of the season. Kelvin Herrera got his chance to finish off the Red Sox after the Royals jumped out to a 4-3 lead in the top of the 12th inning, but Eduardo Nunez knotted it back up with his own solo shot. Not only did Nunez hand Herrera his first blown save of the year, but his homer was also the first run charged to the Royals’ closer this season.

Keone Kela did not get credited with a blown save on Tuesday, but only because he entered with a four-run lead against the Indians. That advantage evaporated with Michael Brantley’s grand slam. Though Kela has now allowed seven runs over 10 innings, he has held the opposition scoreless in 10 of his 12 appearances.

Ken Giles was entrusted with keeping a scoreless tie scoreless in the ninth inning of the Astros’ tilt with the Yankees, but Gary Sanchez’s three-run homer put an end to that. A.J. Hinch left Giles in the game to face Aaron Hicks, but he was pulled after allowing the Yankees’ outfielder to reach on a line drive single. Will Harris ultimately allowed Hicks to score on a wild pitch, further inching Giles’ ERA up to 5.23. The performance ended Giles string of eight consecutive scoreless performances dating back to April 7.

Hunter Strickland has been largely reliable as the Giants’ closer, but he, too, fell victim to the long ball on Tuesday night. Eric Hosmer’s solo home run put the Padres up, 3-2, in the top of the ninth, and Strickland suffered his first loss of the season.

Quick hits: Corey Knebel begins a rehab assignment at Double-A Biloxi on Wednesday. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he is expected to pitch in three or four games, and he could be ready to return by late next week…With Brad Ziegler having been used on back-to-back days, Tayron Guerrero was called upon to pitch the top of the ninth inning of a tie game with the Phillies. Guerrero struck out two batters in a scoreless frame, and he now has 29 strikeouts in 15.1 innings. He was preceded in the eighth inning by Drew Steckenrider, who struck out the side on 13 pitches…Kenley Jansen pitched for the first time in six days, entering in the bottom of the eighth inning against the Diamondbacks with a one-run deficit. He worked around a Jarrod Dyson single and a walk to Deven Marrero to complete a scoreless inning. Jansen is still looking for his first 1-2-3 inning of the season…Shane Greene bounced back from Monday’s loss to the Rays by pitching a perfect ninth inning for his fifth save.

Note: Today marks the first time we are using a new roster grid. In addition to a new color-coding scheme, this version includes color codes for individual relievers rather than for a team’s entire bullpen situation. A white background indicates a stable role for a given reliever, while yellow indicates some instability and red denotes a highly unstable situation. Bear in mind that, for closer committees, the lead reliever in the grid will normally get a yellow or red code simply for sharing saves, but that color code will not be used for the second and/or third relievers in the grid, unless they are in danger of being dropped from the committee.

Not Very Stable
Hot Seat





Al Melchior has been writing about Fantasy baseball and sim games since 2000, and his work has appeared at CBSSports.com, BaseballHQ, Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster and FanRagSports. He has also participated in Tout Wars' mixed auction league since 2013. You can follow Al on Twitter @almelchiorbb and find more of his work at almelchior.com.

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kjohnm
5 years ago

Digging the new grid!

Kevin Grimes
5 years ago
Reply to  kjohnm

This is a very handsome grid.

HappyFunBallmember
5 years ago
Reply to  kjohnm

Love the new grid. so much better w/o the blue!

Maybe some sort of proper indicator to mark committees? An asterisk next to involved players’ names or something?

Matt Maisonmember
5 years ago
Reply to  kjohnm

Agreed.