Two of the more noteworthy closer developments occurred off the field on Wednesday. Terry Collins told the Bergen Record that Jeurys Familia has been returned to the closer’s role. This means the end to his phase-in period following his 15-game suspension for a violation of Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. Collins had used Familia in non-save situations for his first three appearances. This also means the end of Addison Reed’s solid run as the Mets’ closer, which resulted in four saves but also a loss to the Marlins in which he gave up a walk-off home run to J.T. Riddle to break a ninth-inning tie.

In his 2 2/3 innings to date, Familia has six strikeouts and 11 swinging strikes, but he has also walked four batters. If I own Reed, I’m hanging on to him if possible, at least until Familia shows that he will be reliable now that he is back in the closer’s role.

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A couple of postponed games and blowouts but here’s a few notes on the bullpens last night…

• The Rays used five pitchers for a two hit shutout against the Orioles tonight, which was capped off by Alex Colome’s fifth save. Colome took very kindly to the bullpen full time last year posting career bests in his strikeout rate and walk rates but the strikeouts have eluded him early on this year. It’s only been 10 innings but Colome has a meager five strikeouts and a swinging strike percentage of 8.2%, well below last season’s 15.1%. This isn’t to say that Colome could fall drastically in the same way I spoke about Brandon Kintzler last night, but his .179 BABIP might be making his owners overrate his standing among the elite relievers. Colome’s a good closer and I wouldn’t be mining for his backups but his shiny ERA is a bit misleading thus far. I expect him to continue to have a solid year but I would love to see his whiff percentage/strikeouts increase over his next few outings.

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• Brad Brach had his 10th scoreless appearance tonight getting his fourth save on the year. Brach most likely will give up a run this year and he won’t run a .063 much longer but his FIP/xFIP is currently at 1.50/2.96, proving he’s pretty damn good and not just benefiting from some batted ball luck. Brach will continue to close while Britton is on the DL with Darren O’Day and Mychal Givens setting up. O’Day has been more effective in his last couple of appearances but has been shakier than normal this year. He’s been a staple in the O’s pen for so long that I think Showalter will give him a pretty long leash but if he keeps struggling, Givens could leapfrog him on the totem pole. In between blaming Dustin Pedroia for not controlling his teammates, Britton can be found playing catch and should be back in Baltimore soon. Brach is certainly worth owning even if he’s not seeing the ninth inning, and so long as Britton is on the shelf he’s a near top tier option for saves.

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It was a busy weekend for bullpen news around the major leagues. As such, this report is broken into two sections, one for each day.

Saturday:

• Cam Bedrosian (groin) was placed on the 10-day DL on Saturday. In his stead, Bud Norris allowed just a single in an otherwise clean 9th inning to record the first save of his career. Norris has been pretty good this year for the Angels, and he looks to be first in line for saves in Bedrosian’s absence.

• Since Hector Neris and Joaquin Benoit had each pitched in back-to-back games, Edubray Ramos was tasked with finishing off the Braves on Saturday. The Phillies reliever couldn’t get it done: he served up a game-tying solo home run to Brandon Phillips with two outs in the 9th. Neris had notched two consecutive saves, but still hadn’t been named the team’s closer. Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said on Friday that he feels comfortable with both Neris and Benoit in that role. Neris is younger and more intriguing than Benoit, but the Phillies may want to go with Benoit in that role so they can trade him for a greater return at the deadline, and because preventing Neris from accruing saves would likely save them money in arbitration.

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On Wednesday, I wrote in this space that if there were one member of the Nationals’ closing tandem to speculate on, it should be Koda Glover. Two days later, Dusty Baker proved me wrong. As reported by the Washington Post, the Nationals’ manager told Kelley he was the team’s closer, though he will still give way to Glover on occasion in order to preserve his elbow. While Baker told reporters later that both Kelley and Glover would close games, he indicated that Kelley would get the larger share of chances.

That was made apparent when Baker brought Kelley in to preserve a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the 11th inning against the Mets, just one night after he got the save in the series finale against the Braves. It was also Kelley’s third save in four days. He threw a perfect inning and has now held the opposition scoreless in his last six appearances, covering five innings.

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With both Neftali Feliz and Corey Knebel appearing in three of the past four days, Milwaukee turned to young flamethrower Jacob Barnes in the ninth-inning today for his first save opportunity. The right-hander failed to disappoint in his 10th trip to the bump this season, needing just 17 pitches (10 strikes) in a scoreless frame of work, striking out one and allowing one free pass en route to his first save of the season — second of his career — and a 7-5 victory over the Cardinals. This may not be the last we see of Barnes in save situations, as some in the scouting community believe he could be the Brewers’ long-term solution in that role. In just over 10 innings this season, Barnes owns a 0.00 ERA (1.76 FIP) and a 10.45 K/9.
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Koda Glover or Shawn Kelley? Shawn Kelley or Koda Glover? The intrigue began Tuesday night when Blake Treinen loaded up the bases in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Braves, walked in a run to cut the Nationals’ lead to two and had to be bailed out by Kelley. Dusty Baker told reporters after the game he needed to fix the Nationals’ closer situation, and on Wednesday, he made his move. He announced that Glover and Kelley would share the closer role.

It’s not all that surprising that, despite closing out Tuesday’s win, Kelley is not getting the role full-time. For one, there were members of the Nationals coaching staff who wanted Glover to be the closer coming out of spring training. There were also worries within the organization that Kelley was not durable enough to pitch on consecutive days. So despite the fact that Kelley has years of outstanding peripherals and had success during his brief stint as the Nationals’ closer last summer, a share of the job was likely going to be the most he would get.

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• Washington, woof. Both the political arena and the bullpen are a mess right now. Blake Treinen entered the game in the ninth as he normally does and proceeded to allow four baserunners while only recording one out. With the bases loaded, Shawn Kelley came on and got a foul out and a strikeout to end the game for his first save of the year. The silver lining here is that Blake Treinen got his first hold of the year which tells you how useful of a stat that is. Shawn Kelley has been a good reliever for Washington but he never really was given a fair chance to close and I’m not sure if this necessarily changes the calculus.

Either way I’m putting the Nationals situation on red alert. Koda Glover was the early candidate to close games before Treinen was named and it’s possible he could receive a save opportunity soon as well. According to Dusty, the Nationals will likely be making a change at closer and I would go Glover then Kelley but it could be a coin flip. Sidenote: would anyone be surprised if Dusty literally flipped a coin? Whoever ends up receiving the next save opportunities, the Nationals would still need some help in the bullpen so my guess is that the team saves leader may not even be on the team currently. They acquired Mark Melancon last year and they will be linked to any and all trade rumors for saves. You should still go run and pick up Glover and Kelley though.

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Well, that was a pretty eventful weekend for closers, let’s get to it with some news from today as well…

• Zach Britton has dreaded soreness in his forearm and was placed on the 10-Day DL. I say dreaded because of a common connection with the elbow but Britton is saying he won’t need a MRI. I’m assuming that’s a good thing and not the Orioles trying to save a buck. Either way, Brad Brach should see save chances in Britton’s place with Darren O’Day and Mychal Givens behind him. From 2009 to 2015 O’Day had a 2.07 ERA in 400.1 innings but last year it jumped to 3.77 and he’s been rusty to the start of this year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Givens leapfrog O’Day here.

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Santiago Casilla, who we have listed as the A’s closer, relieved Liam Hendriks in the 7th inning with runners on the corners and one out with a two-run lead.

Casilla got Jose Altuve to ground into a force out, on which a run scored, then struck out Carlos Correa after falling behind in the count, 3-0, and allowing two steals to Altuve.

Casilla came back out for the top of the 8th, at which time the A’s still had a 5-4 lead, and he issued a lead-off walk, a stolen base, another walk, and a sacrifice bunt. He was then replaced by Sean Doolittle, with runners on second and third and one out for Nori Aoki.

Doolittle’s first pitch was a fastball in the dirt that got away from the catcher. The tying run scored and the go-ahead run moved up to third with one out. Aoki then gave the Astros the lead with a sacrifice fly to center field, and both runs were charged to Casilla. Doolittle then allowed a single and a home run by George Springer.

Before Casilla and Doolittle entered the game, the score was 5-3, Oakland. When they left, it was 8-5, Houston.

Long story short: stay away from the volatile A’s bullpen until things settle down.

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