Mariano Rivera notched his 13th save on the season and the 621st of his career this afternoon as the Yankees clipped the Rockies, 3-1. The future Hall-of-Famer got two quick outs off the bats of Wilin Rosario and Nolan Arenado before plunking the third batter he faced, Jordan Pacheco. But the potential tying run, Josh Rutledge, grounded out to Jayson Nix to seal Colorado’s fate. The closer’s age and last year’s injury are clearly not a factor. Mariano is Mariano. Arguably (hardly) the best closer ever.

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• J.J. Putz hit the disabled list and the news isn’t good. The notoriously injury-prone reliever is said to be likely in need of surgery and, regardless, “he’ll be out a long time.” It seems that Putz’s 2013 BB% (14%) is double that of his career average could be a manifestation of a partially torn ligament and, reading the tea leaves, season-ending surgery is a real possibility for the 36-year-old. You might as well wait a couple days if you don’t need the spot, but feel free to drop him in shallow leagues or if you have an eye on another guy on the wire.

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• If you were smart, you wouldn’t have listened to me when I said Koji Uehara would get the first shot at saves in lieu of Joel Hanrahan’s injury because it’s Junichi Tazawa who will see the ninth inning now. Colin pretty much summed up the entire situation earlier today so I won’t add much and just lead you over to what he said. With Hanrahan and Bailey on the DL and the former struggling all year and the later always struggling with injuries, Tazawa could possibly see more than just a weeks worth of saves this year.

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• As Colin suggested last night, the Red Sox placed Andrew Bailey on the DL backdated by a week. He should return in not too long if the soreness subsides in his biceps, but if Bailey has one weakness it’s his ability to stay healthy.  Joel Hanrahan would theoretically be back to his pre-season role as the full time closer for the Sox but Hanrahan blew the save tonight off of a Brian Dozier home run and left the game with an injury. We’ll have to wait to hear more information on Hanrahan but behind him in the seventh and eighth innings is Junichi Tazawa  and Koji Uehara who have both been fantastic this season. One of them could figure to pick up a save if Hanrahan were to miss any time and both should be considered great options for holds this week as well. While Uehara won’t pitch consecutive days for the Red Sox I assume he’ll get the first nod for saves if Hanrahan and Bailey were to be out.

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• Just in case anyone was living under a rock the last few days, Jason Motte decided to undergo Tommy John surgery tomorrow and will be out for the remainder of 2013 and possibly (likely?) the early part of 2014. There were red flags implying this seemingly minor elbow issue in spring could prove worrisome for the Cardinals and fantasy owners, so hopefully you’ve already done your due diligence in snapping up Cardinals relievers. With Motte out for the season, Edward Mujica has one less guy peering over his shoulder. He only keeps helping his cause by racking up save after save (even though he’s given up a couple runs in his last three appearances) so keep running him out there on your fantasy squad.

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Rafael Soriano untucked his shirt for the ninth time in ten chances this evening, and he did so facing some of the heaviest hitters — and most prolific whiffers — in the league today. The 33-year-old faced just one over the minimum — yielding a two-out single to Evan Gattis — en route to his 141st career save. Soriano induced consecutive groundouts to Justin Upton and Freddie Freeman, then got Dan Uggla to fly out to right-center with Gattis on first to end the game. Surprisingly, Soriano failed to record a strikeout against the Braves — who entered today with 255 strikeouts as a team, second most in the majors — causing his K% on the year to dip to 24%. And although Soriano may not be receiving the same attention as he did when pitching in the Big Apple, he’s quietly putting together another fine season, and continues to be a top ten closing option. Maybe all that Strasburg, Harper, Zimmermann talk is overshadowing him?

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Holy May.

• While I was sleeping off illness, J.J. Putz was busy getting served at a late night Panda Express in Arizona last night. Pablo Sandoval’s two-run homer off Putz ruined a sparkling pitching performance from Trevor Cahill and caused more Arizona beat writers to question whether a change in the late innings is warranted. Putz’s fastball velocity is down a bit, although he’s historically been a slow starter who ramps up as the season goes along. More concerning is the number of free passes he’s granted since his current 12.5% BB% far surpasses his career 7.7% average. Read the rest of this entry »

April showers bring May flowers, and the last Bullpen Report of April.

• With Joel Hanrahan on the DL, Andrew Bailey has done quite well saving five games with a 1.78 FIP and a stellar 42.6% K%. There has been speculation on who will close once Hanrahan returns, and now that he’s back the latest seems to be that Bailey will continue to close. Sean McAdam says that’s the plan “for now” and that both are “on board with the arrangement.” I suppose if Hanrahan turns it around in the seventh and eighth innings that he could reclaim the ninth, but with the way Bailey is pitching it’s hard to say that’s a likely scenario. Bailey is no beacon of health, and Hanrahan’s return as well as the great depth in the Sox pen (Koji Uehara and Junichi Tazawa) might lead to a Hanrahan opportunity to keep Bailey fresh, but my guess is Bailey keeps the job all year.

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– Craig Kimbrel locked down his 9th save on 10 pitches tonight in a 3-2 Braves victory over the Nationals. The right-hander whiffed just one batter in the top of the ninth-inning resulting in a dip of his K% from 38.9% to 38.5% on the season. Oof. Kimbrel is now 9-of-10 in save opportunities with a 1.69 ERA (1.03 FIP) on the year. But the narrative shouldn’t just be about ninth-inning man here. Fredi Gonazlez summonsed both Jordan Walden and Eric O’Flaherty from the ‘pen prior to calling on the closer. Combined, Walden and O’Flaherty dished 2.2 clean innings while fanning five Nationals. Entering tonight, the Braves bullpen held a 2.18 ERA (2.84 FIP) in 70.1 IP. Not bad.

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• Jim Johnson had the day off on Sunday (he threw ~15 pitches both Friday and Saturday and had pitched four of the last five days) so Buck Showalter decided to try and have Brian Matusz close out the Athletics. “Try” being the operative word, because Matusz gave up a 2-run shot to recently-activated Yoenis Cespedes which sent the game into extras. It was there where Pedro Strop took the loss, although the winning run was unearned thanks to an error by Manny Machado.

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