Bullpen Report: September 24, 2015

Congratulations is in order for the Kansas City Royals who officially punched their ticket to the 2015 MLB Playoffs with a 10-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners tonight. The good news is that the Royals clinched their first division title since 1985. The bad news is that they’ll have to navigate their way through the playoffs without their closer, Greg Holland.

Reports suggest that Holland first felt something wasn’t right in his elbow last season prior to the playoffs. But he pitched through it and eventually won the Mariano Rivera Award for the best closer in the American League. He charged through the Spring knowing the issues were still present. And despite the elbow discomfort and gradual dip in velocity as the season wore on, Holland refused to get an MRI until late August when ligament damage was detected. The Royals tried to honor Holland’s wishes by letting him pitch through the injury, but after a fifth blown save last weekend he was yanked from the closer’s role and shut down for the remainder of the year. The 29-year-old finished the ‘15 season with a 3-2 record, 32-of-37 in save chances, an 11.9% K-BB% and a 3.83 ERA (3.23 FIP).

Assuming Holland goes under the knife to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament — the famous Tommy John surgery — he’ll likely miss the entire 2016 season rehabbing. This will be an interesting situation to monitor going forward as 2016 is slated to be Holland’s final season of arbitration before becoming a free agent in 2017.

This is undoubtedly a big blow for the depth of the Royals’ bullpen, but they are lucky to be able to slide right-hander Wade Davis into the ninth-inning role. Nothing against Holland and his body of work, but Davis has arguably been the pitcher of the two for some time — something folks around these parts have been saying for awhile. Davis is 8-1 on the season with 13 saves in 14 chances, owns a 0.86 ERA (2.23 FIP), a 0.80 WHIP and a 21.8% K-BB%. Kelvin Herrera and Ryan Madson could be next-in-line for saves while Luke Hochevar could rack up a few more holds between now and the end of the season.

For the second consecutive evening Kenley Jansen notched a save against division rival Arizona. The Dodgers’ closer is now up to 34 saves on the season — and ten consecutive conversions in-a-row — in 36 chances with a 2.36 ERA (2.11 FIP). Entering tonight’s action, Jansen owned a 41.6% K%, the best we’ve seen from the right-hander since his 2011 campaign when he fanned 44% of the batters he faced. Oh, I should probably note that Jansen has only walked eight of 188 batters (4.2% BB%), which is third-best among closers behind only Jonathan Papelbon (3.6% BB%) and Glen Perkins (3.6% BB%) entering tonight. As long as health is Kenley’s side, he’ll be a top-two closer to start the ‘16 fake baseball season.

The Orioles’ Zach Britton has been sidelined with a mild strain of the left lat, paving the way for right-hander — and soon to be free agent — Darren O’Day to take on ninth-inning duties. Dating back to September 17th, O’Day is a perfect 4-for-4 in save chances without allowing a hit and owns a 6:0 K:BB. The right-hander is owned in just 28% of Y! leagues at the time of this writing, but should be owned by any owner making a last ditch effort to accumulate saves. Keep in mind that he’s appeared in three straight, meaning we likely won’t see O’Day on the mound again until Saturday.

Quick Hitters: Craig Kimbrel picked up his fourth victory of the season tonight courtesy of the Padres bats in the home half of the ninth. The Padres may have disappointed (some of us – others expect this, or worse) this season, Kimbrel’s first season in San Diego pretty much went off without a hitch. The ratios (2.72 ERA, 2.79 FIP) don’t quite match his efforts while in Atlanta — and are a career worst — but he converted 37-of-41 saves while maintaining a K-BB% north of 25%. Feel free to pencil Kimbrel in as a top five closer to begin the ‘16 season. Twenty-five year-old Jeurys Familia notched his 42nd save of the season tonight in a clean inning of work. Goodness. Andrew Miller yielded a two-out single to Adam Eaton, but fanned two White Sox en route to his 35th save in 37 opportunities. A.J. Ramos (29), Cody Allen (32) and Mark Melancon (50!!) also earned saves Thursday.

Warning: The chart needs some TLC. I’ll be working on it this evening and will post the updated version when ready.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Daniel Hudson	David Hernandez
Atlanta	Arodys Vizcaino	Matt Marksberry	Edwin Jackson	Jason Grilli
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Brad Brach
Boston	Robbie Ross	Jean Machi	Noe Ramirez	Koji Uehara
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Fernando Rodney
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Nate Jones	Jacob Petricka
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	J.J. Hoover	Ryan Mattheus
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Zach McAllister
Colorado	John Axford	Jairo Diaz	Boone Logan
Detroit	Neftali Feliz	Alex Wilson	Al Albuerquerque	Joe Nathan
Houston	Luke Gregerson	Pat Neshek	Chad Qualls
KC	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera	Ryan Madson	Greg Holland
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Fernando Salas
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Chris Hatcher	Jim Johnson
Miami	A.J. Ramos	Mike Dunn	Bryan Morris	Carter Capps
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Jeremy Jeffress	Will Smith
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Kevin Jepsen	Trevor May
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Tyler Clippard	Addison Reed
NY (AL)	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances	Justin Wilson
Oakland	Sean Doolittle	Ryan Dull	Drew Pomeranz
Philly	Ken Giles	Dalier Hinojosa	Jeanmar Gomez
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Joakim Soria	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist	Steve Cishek
SD	Craig Kimbrel	Joaquin Benoit	Kevin Quackenbush	Brendan Maurer
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Hunter Strickland
Seattle	Tom Wilhelmsen	Carson Smith	Logan Kensing
TB	Brad Boxberger	Alex Colome	Steve Geltz	Jake McGee
Texas	Shawn Tolleson	Keone Kela	Jake Diekman	Tanner Scheppers
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Aaron Sanchez	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Jonathan Papelbon	Casey Janssen	Matt Thornton	Drew Storen

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