On a night that didn’t have much bullpen drama, Francisco Rodriguez had a notably messy save. Entering the bottom of the ninth inning with a 7-1 lead, it seemed unlikely that the Tigers would have a reason to employ Rodriguez in this game, but William Cuevas loaded the bases and allowed a one-out Yandy Diaz RBI single. Rodriguez inherited a five-run lead but a bases-loaded situation. After striking out Abraham Almonte, he coughed up a pinch-hit grand slam to Lonnie Chisenhall.

Rodriguez protected the one-run lead that remained by striking out Austin Jackson, notching his fourth save in five tries, but he lifted his ERA to 5.40. On just about any other team, this could be cause for a controversy, but Rodriguez does not have any real rivals for the job at this point. Justin Wilson has been effective and could be a candidate if Rodriguez has protracted struggles. Joe Jimenez carries the label of “closer of the future,” but he was optioned to Triple-A Toledo earlier on Friday to make room for Cuevas, who was promoted from Toledo.

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This evening’s edition of the Bullpen Report is much more of a routine fly-out than the previous week or so — lucky me. A combination of a short(er) slate and closers already in the green getting their work in are to thank as I write this. There have been some minor changes to the chart based on the work of the previous writers and the helpful notes from some of the commenters. Thanks folks.
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With the Rangers heading into the final frame with a 6-3 lead against the Angels on Wednesday night, it looked as if we were going to get our first peek at what the future of the Rangers’ ninth inning will be. Sam Dyson and Matt Bush (shoulder) were unavailable, and with Jose Leclerc throwing the last four pitches of the eighth inning (including a three-pitch strikeout of Mike Trout), he was primed to come out for the ninth. Tony Barnette was an option, too.

The Rangers tacked on two more runs in the top of the ninth, so the save chance was gone if a new reliever was brought in. Instead, Leclerc stayed in the game and finished it, yielding only an Andrelton Simmons single, notching two strikeouts and recording the five-out save. Jeff Banister still thinks Dyson could be the team’s closer, but if Leclerc gets some additional save chances in place of Dyson or Bush, it could be hard to take him out of the role.

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Another Sam Dyson meltdown has everyone running to their waiver wires, but for who? Matt Bush is the fantasy favorite with a 97 mph and gaudy strikeout rate (26% since the start of 2016), but he’s getting an exam on the AC joint in his right shoulder and will be out for at least a few days. I tend to believe Jeremy Jeffress is the next-in-line even with a healthy Bush after notching 27 saves last year, but he lost the game after Dyson blew it on Tuesday night and has allowed runs in three of his five outing, so it’s not like he’s instilling a ton of confidence in manager Jeff Banister right now, either. We haven’t gotten much from Banister himself, though this non-committal comment from Evan Grant’s piece suggests it’s under review:

“We’ll evaluate all our options,” manager Jeff Banister said when asked about the closer situation.

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• The only blown save by a closer in Friday’s games was by Francisco Rodriguez, and his occurred in the eighth inning. Rodriguez entered the game with the Tigers clinging on to a 4-2 lead in the top of the eighth with runners on first and third. Pablo Sandoval took Rodriguez’s 0-2 offering over the wall in left center field, giving the Red Sox a 5-4 lead. But all was eventually well for the Tigers, who got two runs back in the bottom of the eighth, followed by a scoreless ninth. Rodriguez made things interesting in that inning, too, allowing a Dustin Pedroia single and a Mitch Moreland double, but he stranded them and got the win.

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• Oakland was up four runs heading into the eighth inning today and they called on Santiago Casilla with Kole Calhoun, Mike Trout and Albert Pujols due up. If it was a smaller lead we likely would have seen higher leverage extraordinaire Ryan Madson in that spot (heart of the lineup) but with four runs it was Casilla. Casilla retired the side 1-2-3 and in the ninth handed the ball off to Sean Doolittle who allowed a base hit but struck out three in the process. As we have mentioned in these parts this week, Madson is the “closer” but on days where the eighth inning is a higher priority we will likely see Casilla and Doolittle in the ninth, and likely in that order.

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There were some ninth-inning adventures on Wednesday, but of the 10 relievers with save chances in the final frame, eight managed to come through.

Then there was Sam Dyson. In last night’s bullpen report, Benjamin Pasinkoff made note of Dyson’s meltdown in the Rangers’ season opener against the Indians, as well as his diminished velocity. Whereas Dyson averaged 93.9 mph on his fastball on Monday, this time around he raised it up to 94.7 mph. However, he lost the strike zone, walking Abraham Almonte and Carlos Santana back-to-back, and throwing strikes on just 10 of his 22 pitches. Francisco Lindor made Dyson pay for the walks, hitting a grand slam that left him with a blown save.

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• Addressing the committees (again). Cam Bedrosian should be the closer for the Angels but Scioscia is calling it a committee for now. While one should be inclined to believe what the coach says, the other alternatives for saves are currently the oft-injured Andrew Bailey and the currently injured Huston Street. Even when Street returns, the chances of him pitching particularly well don’t seem particularly high. I would suspect this is an early season hedge by Scioscia and consider Bedrosian fairly safe for now, in spite of the dreaded committee tag.

Similarly in Oakland, the A’s might be running a committee approach after Santiago Casilla received the first save chance. Ryan Madson was originally our designated closer but he came on in the eighth to get Mike Trout, leaving Casilla to the ninth which is the kind of mix-and-matchup one would expect in a committee. While the Angels seem to be playing pretend, I’m calling the A’s an actual committee. Expect Madson to see the higher leverage situations not necessarily in the ninth inning (especially against righties) with Sean Doolittle and Casilla also in the mix.

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Welcome back to another season of the Bullpen Report here at RotoGraphs. As the second day of regular season games come to a close, we felt the need to catch up with you all, run the closer chart, provide some general thoughts about how we will proceed with the chart this season and provide a couple of tidbits of news and analysis from the handful of games already in the books.

With respect to the chart:
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On Wednesday, I asked for help to verify historic preseason closer situations and how those roless held up. Today, I will task your memory and ask for help with two more seasons. After getting these two seasons straightened out, I’ll call it quits on the collection process and begin the analysis next week.

Please look over your favorite team and make sure the information is correct. Additionally, look over the situation with question marks as the information I gathered was vague. Finally, here is the meanings of each column. Read the rest of this entry »