Bullpen Report: September 7, 2017

On Wednesday night, Tyler Lyons earned his second save of the season, seemingly cementing his position as the Cardinals’ primary option at closer. Yet right around the time Lyons was sewing up a 3-1 win against the Padres in San Diego, Juan Nicasio was en route to join the team, and ultimately, the mix of ninth-inning options.. The Cardinals acquired Nicasio from the Phillies in exchange for minor league second baseman Eliezer Alvarez.

As for Nicasio’s role with his second new team in the span of a week — as the Phillies claimed him off waivers from the Pirates — Mike Matheny told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he would add the righty to the late-inning mix. Matheny added he could turn to Nicasio for the occasional save.

Nicasio did not appear in Thursday’s loss to the Padres, but Seung Hwan Oh did, allowing a home run to Wil Myers in the seventh inning that expanded a 1-0 deficit to 3-0. Oh has been drifting further and further from high-leverage situations, and between his performance on Thursday and the addition of Nicasio, he would appear to have a remote chance of getting saves from here on out. I have replaced Oh in the closer’s grid with Nicasio, who slides into the third spot behind Lyons and John Brebbia.

Filling Nicasio’s spot in the Phillies’ portion of the grid is Adam Morgan, who took the loss against the Nationals on Thursday night, but has been popping up in the seventh inning recently when the team has a lead. The go-ahead run charged to Morgan on Thursday was only the second he has allowed since the beginning of August. Over that time, the lefty has tossed 19 innings, collecting 25 strikeouts and four walks. The normally flyball-prone Morgan has posted a 52.3 percent ground ball rate during that span and allowed one extra-base hit — a Myers double back on Aug. 16.

According to Brooks Baseball, Morgan has increased the ground ball rate on his slider from 28.0 percent through July 31 to 50.0 percent since then. It may be related that he has also decreased his slider spin rate from 2681 to 2648 rpm over those same periods, per Baseball Savant. If Morgan can continue to induce grounders while staying in the neighborhood of a 16.3 percent swinging strike rate, he could help owners looking for strikeouts and good ratios over these final weeks of the season. He is also still putting in some multiple-inning appearances, so if you missed out on Chad Green for high-volume quality relief innings, Morgan could be a surprisingly productive alternative.

Is it Kyle Barraclough time yet? There has not been word of a closer change in Miami, but the trends are pointing in that direction. On Thursday, Brad Ziegler blew his second consecutive save, giving up an Ozzie Albies RBI double. Then he took the loss against the Braves, as he allowed Kurt Suzuki’s walk-off single. Of 19 batted balls that Ziegler has yielded over his last six appearances, only eight have been ground balls. Since he is not much of a bat-misser, if Ziegler is not inducing grounders, he is highly vulnerable to blowing saves.

Barraclough pitched a scoreless eighth inning on Thursday, and that has been the norm for him lately. He has allowed only one run over his last 12 innings, while striking out 18 batters and walking one. If you have a roster spot to spare, it can’t hurt to pick Barraclough up now if he is available.

Kelvin Herrera made his first appearance since getting lifted early with a forearm strain on Sept. 1, but his Thursday outing against the Twins went even more poorly than his previous one. His defense failed him, as Alex Gordon and Alcides Escobar allowed a Jason Castro popup to fall between them, but Herrera did not help matters. With Castro and Max Kepler already aboard, he walked Robbie Grossman to load the bases, and then Brian Dozier tied the game with a sacrifice fly. Two batters later, the Twins took the lead for good on a Jorge Polanco two-run single.

It’s not hard to imagine that Herrera could be removed from the closer’s role, either for health or performance reasons. Brandon Maurer has struggled, too, but it’s not clear if Ned Yost would entrust him with save opportunities or if he would go with Mike Minor and/or Scott Alexander. Speculating on any of Herrera’s potential successors looks like a low-probability move, but Minor and Alexander in particular could have some value over the final weeks if either one becomes a full-time closer. This is a situation to watch carefully.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
ARI	Fernando Rodney	Archie Bradley	David Hernandez
ATL	Arodys Vizcaino	Jim Johnson	Jose Ramirez
BAL	Zach Britton	Brad Brach	Mychal Givens
BOS	Craig Kimbrel	Addison Reed	Matt Barnes	Carson Smith
CHC	Wade Davis	Pedro Strop	Carl Edwards Jr.
CWS	Juan Minaya	Danny Farquhar	Gregory Infante	Nate Jones
CIN	Raisel Iglesias	Michael Lorenzen	Drew Storen
CLE	Cody Allen	Joe Smith	Bryan Shaw	Andrew Miller
COL	Greg Holland	Jake McGee	Pat Neshek
DET	Shane Greene	Alex Wilson	Joe Jimenez
HOU	Ken Giles	Chris Devenski	Luke Gregerson
KC	Kelvin Herrera	Brandon Maurer	Scott Alexander	Joakim Soria
LAA	Blake Parker	Cam Bedrosian	Bud Norris
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Brandon Morrow	Pedro Baez
MIA	Brad Ziegler	Kyle Barraclough	Drew Steckenrider
MIL	Corey Knebel	Anthony Swarzak	Josh Hader
MIN	Matt Belisle	Trevor Hildenberger	Alan Busenitz
NYM	A.J. Ramos	Jeurys Familia	Paul Sewald
NYY	Dellin Betances	Aroldis Chapman	David Robertson
OAK	Blake Treinen	Chris Hatcher	Liam Hendriks
PHI	Hector Neris	Luis Garcia	Adam Morgan
PIT	Felipe Rivero	Daniel Hudson	A.J. Schugel	Joaquin Benoit
STL	Tyler Lyons	John Brebbia	Juan Nicasio	Trevor Rosenthal
SD	Brad Hand	Kirby Yates	Phil Maton
SF	Sam Dyson	Hunter Strickland	Mark Melancon
SEA	Edwin Diaz	Nick Vincent	Marc Rzepczynski	Tony Zych
TB	Alex Colome	Tommy Hunter	Steve Cishek
TEX	Alex Claudio	Tony Barnette	Jake Diekman	Keone Kela
TOR	Roberto Osuna	Ryan Tepera	Dominic Leone
WSH	Sean Doolittle	Brandon Kintzler	Ryan Madson

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