Raisel Iglesias has been steady as the Reds’ closer, so speculating on his potential replacement has seemed like a largely intellectual exercise. Now that speculation could have some consequences for fantasy owners, as the Reds placed their closer on the 10-day disabled list with a strained left biceps.

Jim Riggleman has taken some of the guesswork away from us, as he has already cited Jared Hughes, Amir Garrett, Wandy Peralta and the just-activated Michael Lorenzen as possible replacement options. His lack of commitment to a single replacement makes it less attractive to speculate on any one reliever as a future source of saves. Riggleman’s comments about the nature and severity of Iglesias’ injury also suggest that he may not be out long, making it even less urgent to try to add one of the foursome. The interim manager told reporters that “Iglesias’ left biceps has been bothering him for some days. It’s just tender…Rather than continue to deal with it, we’re just going to DL him…”
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When the White Sox faced the Rangers this past weekend, they found themselves in late-inning situations with a slim lead and a cluster of lefties due up. That situation availed itself on both Saturday and Sunday, and both times, Rick Renteria turned to Jace Fry. After an eighth-inning rally against the Orioles on Tuesday night, it was déjà vu all over again for Renteria, but this time, it was Nate Jones who got the call.

Jones started off the ninth inning by walking Chris Davis, but then he struck out Pedro Alvarez, giving himself some breathing room before facing right-handed Mark Trumbo. On the first pitch from Jones, Trumbo singled into center field, but even with lefties Jace Peterson and Chance Sisco due up, Jones stayed in the game. Fortunately for Jones, he retired them both for his fourth save. Unfortunately for Fry’s fantasy owners, the young lefty was robbed of a chance for his second save in three days. And we all lost, because we were deprived of the chance to see a Jace-Off between Fry and Peterson.
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• After missing out on previous save opportunities, Hector Neris saw the night inning last night and threw a perfect frame for his 9th save on the year. Seranthony Dominguez got the call before Neris in the eighth and pitched a scoreless inning allowing one hit and a strike out for his fourth hold, keeping his ERA at a pristine 0.00. Edubray Ramos had last pitched on Thursday, so he would have been available in this game, suggesting that Dominguez and Neris are ahead of him in the pecking order. We’re still considering this a committee but it looks like Neris is back in action after a rough outing on May 11th. Additionally, although he’s only a rookie getting his first sip at the majors, Dominguez might be the best of the bunch with a 16.2% SwStr% and 8 strikeouts and 0 walks in his 7.2 innings this year. If/when Neris falters again, I would expect Dominguez, with a little more seasoning under his belt, to leapfrog  Ramos and the other committee members for save opportunities.

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In the span of two days, Jace Fry has gone from being an emerging lefty getting his first taste of some setup work to being firmly in the saves mix for the White Sox. On Saturday, Fry was used in the eighth inning with a two-run lead against the Rangers. Brought in to face Nomar Mazara, Jurickson Profar and Joey Gallo — a pair of lefties sandwiching a switch-hitter — and he came back for the ninth inning to handle left-handed Rougned Odor. Rick Renteria did not opt to give Fry a two-inning save, as he let Nate Jones handle right-handed Robinson Chirinos, even with lefty Ronald Guzman on deck.

On Sunday, the trio of Profar, Mazara and Gallo were due up in the ninth inning, and Renteria let Fry have an encore performance — this time with a 3-0 lead and a save at stake. Fry set the trio down in order, retiring the latter two with strikeouts. Through the first seven performances of his major league career, Fry has yet to allow a hit or a run, and over 8.1 innings, he has 12 strikeouts and two walks. While he has been highly adept at inducing whiffs, posting a 15.9 percent swinging strike rate, he has been even more impressive in his ability to freeze batters, inducing called strikes at a 24.3 percent rate.
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The Cardinals-Phillies matchup yielded some interesting results on Saturday. Jordan Hicks – who was covered at length by Al Mechior on May 18th – hurled a scoreless seventh frame in a tie game, throwing 10-of-12 pitches for strikes and getting three ground ball outs. Tommy Hunter replaced Luis Garcia (who gave up a home run to Tyler O’Neil in the sixth) in the bottom of the inning. The first hitter to come to the plate – Tommy Pham – hit a slow dribbler to Scott Kingery at third base and he made an errant throw to first base to advance Pham to second base. Matt Carpenter was up next, doubling on the second pitch he saw to give the Cardinals a one-run lead. Hunter was able to escape the inning without giving up another run, but he started behind three-of-the-five hitters he faced and didn’t record a strikeout. With the Cardinals up a run, they turned to Greg Holland in the eighth to hold the lead. He was unable to oblige. After getting Carlos Santana and Aaron Altherr to ground out and strike out to start the frame, he yielded a walk, triple, and single to give the Phillies a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

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San Diego’s record may preclude fantasy owners from realizing how strong the bullpen remains to be. Brad Hand notched his 13th save working 1.1 innings giving up his first hit to a left-handed hitter all year (a double to Corey Dickerson) with two strikeouts. This marks his 15th scoreless outing over his last 17 and lowered his ERA to 2.31 on the season. Kirby Yates recorded his seventh hold allowing a walk with two strikeouts. He’s only given up one earned run in his last 17 appearances comprising 15 innings of work, limiting hitters to a .140 batting average against with 20 strikeouts so far, but 11 in his last 5.2 innings.

Also underappreciated, Blake Treinen closed out his ninth save in a 1.1 inning outing with three strikeouts in Toronto. In May, he’s accounted for a win and converted all six save chances in eight games. During these 9.2 innings, Treinen’s yielded seven hits, one earned run and three walks with 11 strikeouts. He’s nine for 11 in save opportunities this year with five of them requiring him to record more than three outs along with having to pitch more than one inning in nine of his 16 outings this year.  Read the rest of this entry »

After seeking a second opinion on a course of action for his damaged UCL, Keynan Middleton has opted to undergo Tommy John surgery.  He came off the 10-day disabled list on May 10 after a minimum stay for right elbow inflammation, and he made just three appearances before exiting early in his most recent appearance on Sunday.

As has been the case for much of this season, the Angels’ closer situation is murky at best. Jim Johnson appeared to be emerging as the closer during Middleton’s initial absence, but he no longer looks like a candidate. His two most recent appearances have come with the Angels in a deficit, including Thursday’s seventh-inning outing against the Rays. Johnson entered with the Angels down only by a run, but he coughed up four runs (three earned) in just one-third of an inning.
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After the Phillies announced there would be a committee approach to the ninth inning, fantasy owners should worry. Gabe Kapler’s still plying his trade as a first year manager armed with an emerging bullpen. Hector Neris started the year in the traditional closer role, but lost the role following a blown save last Friday. Edubray Ramos recorded his first save on Sunday yet no clarity arose. On Wednesday, Philadelphia started with Ramos in the top of the ninth in a save situation and he responded by striking out both hitters he faced on six pitches, both being right-handed batters. Then, they brought in Neris to pitch to Chris Davis, a left-handed slugger, who grounded out to second base securing the win. For the Phillies, the win will be the important factor, not preventing Ramos or Neris from notching a save. This will be important to remember when trying to chase saves in this bullpen going forward, especially given Ramos has limited left-handed hitters to a .200 batting average against this year compared .184 for Neris. No matter how the team spins the ninth, it’s going to be match-up based which will mean headaches for the saves chasers looking at this bullpen. All being told, it may be easier to avoid until clarity arises.

One day removed from suggesting a fluid bullpen, Atlanta provided Arodys Vizcaino with a redemption save chance last night. Vizcaino responded with his first clean save of the season. It’s Vizcaino’s eighth save and even though he has his warts, he’s closed out 20 of 23 save chances dating back to July 30th of last year. Of course, overlooking his 10 walks in 20.2 innings of work this year would be shortsighted, but dropping him due to the latest committee warning would be as well. A.J. Minter garnered the win in relief working one inning giving up a hit and striking out one. Many will keep tabs on Dan Winkler, and rightly so, due to his minuscule 0.98 ERA and 0.65 WHIP with 27 strikeouts versus 67 total batters faced (40.3 strikeout percentage) in 18.1 innings. With Vizcaino working the last two games, perhaps Winkler will get an audition on Thursday? Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday night was not Arodys Vizcaino’s night. Brian Snitker charged him with the task of protecting a one-run lead against the Cubs, but after retiring Kyle Schwarber on a routine fly ball, he gave up back-to-back doubles to Albert Almora Jr. and Addison Russell that were smoked, respectively, with exit velocities of 100.4 and 105.2 mph. Two batters later, Ben Zobrist put the Cubs ahead on a single into shallow center field. That ultimately gave Vizcaino his second loss to go along with his second blown save.

Though Vizcaino has nominally been in a co-closer situation with A.J. Minter, he has received the bulk of the Braves’ save chances, and he hasn’t been bad. Tuesday’s loss was the first time all season that Vizcaino had allowed more than one run in an appearance, and entering the game, he had a 1.93 ERA, a .167 Avg allowed and 19 strikeouts in 18.2 innings.
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• After experiencing elbow pain again, Keynan Middleton is back on the DL with “damage to the ulnar collateral ligament.” This certainly isn’t good news and it likely means Middleton days of closing this year are gone. Even if he does return to the team, it’s likely an internal or external option would have a more secure handle on the ninth inning. With a save situation last night, Mike Scioscia turned to Justin Anderson who pitched around two hits and a walk for a scoreless ninth and his first save on the year. Jim Johnson had been seeing the ninth previously and Cam Bedrosian is still around as well. All three look to be in a committee of sorts for the time being. However, with the Angels tied for the division lead and looking to make the playoffs this year, I can’t imagine they’re going to finish the year hoping this trifecta of relievers will be enough in October. If you need to chase saves, by all means pick up or hold onto Johnson and Anderson but the team leader in saves this year probably is not on the Angels yet.

The new-ish Wild Card format keeps teams in the race longer and it’s only mid-May but some of the current bottom feeders have relief options that might be available this summer. Brad Hand, Kelvin Herrera, Raisel Iglesias, Zach Britton and others could certainly be on the block soon and I fully expect the Angels to be calling.

UPDATE: I foolishly left Blake Parker out of the write-up and the grid. I added him below. He has been the best reliever of late for the Angels and was also unavailable last night. It’s of course hard to tell the pecking order here but consider Parker as much of a possibility as Johnson and Anderson, and since he’s pitching the best if he gets an opportunity maybe it sticks longer than his first stint at the start of the year.

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