Bullpen Report: May 4, 2016

• Well, it finally happened — Jeanmar Gomez finally blew a save. It wasn’t pretty either, as the righty was touched up for two runs on three hits and a pair of walks. The outing was ugly enough to bring his (SSS) xFIP from 3.27 to 3.81, which is actually not too far off last year’s 3.98 mark. We’ve mentioned here a couple times that Gomez is probably just good enough to hold onto the gig when things are going well, but he doesn’t have enough swing-and-miss stuff to avoid bad stretches where guys are making solid contact and putting the ball in play. He has been used a lot lately (8 times in the Phillies last 12 games), so maybe a day or two off will do him good. I expect he’ll get the next save opportunity, but we’ve kept him yellow even through the “good times” for a reason. I’ll slide Hector Neris (2.05 xFIP, 43% K%) ahead of David Hernandez (2.26 xFIP, 39% K%) based on his save a couple games ago (when Gomez was getting a day off). However, it wouldn’t be shocking if either of them (or even Andrew Bailey) saw run in the ninth inning for Philly at some point going forward.

• Jake McGee worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning for save number 7. He seems to have calmed down after his implosion against the Dodgers last week, so why am I writing about Jake McGee? Be wary. McGee’s only struck out four of the 44 batters he has faced this year. His fastball velocity is down 1.5 mph from last year and over three ticks from two years ago. SwStr%? Down. F-Strike%? Down. There are a lot of warning sirens here — I have very few shares of Jake McGee, but the one place I have him, I’m peddling him. The unfortunate thing? There is no Adam Ottavino lying in wait this year. Chad Qualls (the current second chair) hasn’t been awful, but he hasn’t been very good either. Boone Logan is the Rockies’ best reliever by peripherals, but a large part of that is because he’s facing lefties. Ottavino is starting to ramp up his rehab, but we won’t see him until mid-July at the absolute earliest (and it’s ambitious to think he’ll be lights out right away). Miguel Castro offers hope when healthy, but having to hit the DL with shoulder injuries in April scare me. There isn’t anyone lying in wait in Albuquerque, either, so maybe this is just a bullpen we don’t want to play with this year.

• Ross Ohlendorf pitched in the closest thing the Red have had to a save situation in a few games, coughing up a run while entering with a four-run lead in the ninth today. Ohlendorf is somewhat similar to Jeanmar Gomez — probably good enough to go on a run of mediocrity in the ninth, but posts somewhat pedestrian peripherals (4.09 xFIP last year, 4.30 so far this year), so he’ll likely never achieve a firm grasp. A couple bright spots to point out — both the fastball velocity and whiff rate are up a tad, so there’s reason to believe he could sneak past last year’s peripherals. Helping him is the fact that the Reds bullpen has been extra awful (above and beyond the norm) as of late. Tony Cingrani has the whiffs, but is walking nearly one out of every five batters he faces. Caleb Cotham’s somewhat uninspiring stuff has caught up to him the last few games. Perhaps the reliever who looked best for this team in the early going is Dan Straily, but he now seems to be one of the team’s most stable rotation cogs after only a few turns. Ohlendorf feels like the guy to own right now and I’m not sure I’d speculate too much behind him. Jumbo Diaz has a 9/1 K/BB in 5.2 innings in Triple-A and posted a 2.84 SIERA last year. To be honest, he’s the guy I’m buying in deeper leagues; he’s not even on the big league roster.

• Quick hits: Kevin Quackenbush just hasn’t had it early on for the Padres, so Ryan Buchter makes his debut on the grid. I’ll move Fernando Rodney to green for now, but that’ll go back to yellow the next time he doesn’t shoot arrows. Alex Colome has looked good enough to take hold of Tampa Bay’s closer job for now, we’ll see where he is when Brad Boxberger is ready. Huston Street is the guy when healthy in Anaheim, but Joe Smith is the guy when Huston Street is not healthy. He’s green until Street hits the rehab trail.

Closer Grid:

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