Bullpen Report: May 26, 2016

Closer controversy in Houston, anyone? Maybe soon, but maybe not just yet. Ken Giles earned the nod in the ninth tonight with Luke Gregerson unavailable thanks to a combined 43 pitches in the last two evenings. Giles, who came over to Houston in the blockbuster offseason deal with Philadelphia, surrendered an earned run on a pair of singles but held on to notch his first save as an Astro.

Tonight’s earned run follows a series of nine consecutive scoreless appearances for the right-hander since apparently correcting a mechanical flaw with hand placement that allowed hitters to see the fastball out of his hand longer than before. Giles definitely struggled in March/April, posting a 9.00 ERA (6.69 FIP) with a 19.2% K-BB% while May’s 1.93 ERA (1.59 FIP) and 23.7% K-BB% along with a spike in velocity lead us to believe he may just have figured this pitching thing out. Luke Gregerson is 10-of-13 in save situations this season with a 3.32 ERA (2.21 FIP) and a 16.1% K-BB%. Gregerson sure doesn’t have the velocity or strikeout rates Giles does (when pitching well), but a change in the ninth-inning role may not be on the horizon just yet.

Things are very green for Roberto Osuna in Toronto right now. The young right-hander fanned a pair of Yankees in a clean frame of work (15 pitches – four swinging strikes) to pick up his 10th save of the season. The 21-year-old is now 10-of-11 in save opportunities this season with a 1.29 ERA (2.09 FIP) and striking out 10.71 batters per nine innings. Off topic note: As of Friday, the Blue Jays’ closer will no longer be the youngest pitcher in baseball with 19-year-old Julio Urias of the Dodgers expected to make his debut against the Metropolitans.

Carlos Torres picked up his second save of the year with Jeremy Jeffress and Tyler Thornburg unavailable. Both Jeffress and Thornburg appeared the last two days in a row while the former tripped to the bump in the three of the last four. All that nonsense aside, Torres notched the two-inning save (31 pitches – six called and two swinging strikes) while allowing one free pass and striking out one Brave.

Not the youngest pitcher in the league, Jonathan Papelbon, converted his 13th save of the season in an eight pitch effort for the Nationals. While he’s still picking up saves, hit strikeouts per nine (6.62) and SwStr% (9.4%) are the lowest of his career and walks per nine (2.55) is the most he’s allowed since his 2010 season with the Red Sox. Velocity seems to be down a tick as well on each of his offerings, but Pap is still notching those saves in Washington and remains green.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Daniel Hudson	Tyler Clippard
Atlanta	Arodys Vizcaino	Jason Grilli	Hunter Cervenka
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Mychal Givens
Boston	Craig Kimbrel	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Justin Grimm
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Nate Jones	Zach Duke
Cincy	Ross Ohlendorf	Tony Cingrani	Blake Wood	Jumbo Diaz
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Dan Otero
Colorado	Jake McGee	Carlos Estevez	Jason Motte
Detroit	Francisco Rodriguez	Mark Lowe	Justin Wilson	Bruce Rondon
Houston	Luke Gregerson	Will Harris	Ken Giles
KC	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria
LAA	Joe Smith	Fernando Salas	Jose Alvarez	Huston Street
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Pedro Baez	Joe Blanton	Yimi Garcia
Miami	A.J. Ramos	David Phelps	Kyle Barraclough	Carter Capps
Milwaukee	Jeremy Jeffress	Tyler Thornburg	Michael Blazek	Will Smith
Minnesota	Kevin Jepsen	Fernando Abad	Michael Tonkin	Glen Perkins
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Addison Reed	Hansel Robles
NY (AL)	Aroldis Chapman	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances
Oakland	Ryan Madson	Sean Doolittle	John Axford
Philly	Jeanmar Gomez	Hector Neris	David Hernandez
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Neftali Feliz
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist	Seung Hwan Oh
SD	Fernando Rodney	Brandon Maurer	Ryan Buchter
SF	Santiago Casilla	Cody Gearrin	Hunter Strickland	Sergio Romo
Seattle	Steve Cishek	Joaquin Benoit	Joel Peralta
TB	Alex Colome	Erasmo Ramirez	Xavier Cedeno	Brad Boxberger
Texas	Sam Dyson	Jake Diekman	Matt Bush	Keone Kela
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Gavin Floyd	Drew Storen	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Jonathan Papelbon	Blake Treinen	Shawn Kelley

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