Archive for Relievers

It has now been 10 days since Wade Davis ended his stay on the IL with an oblique injury, and he has appeared five times for the Rockies since then. Enough time has passed that it’s fair to say that the warning signs that were present for Davis before going on the IL have not gotten any weaker.

In Davis’ three outings before getting shelved, he had given up three runs on five hits and a pair of walks over three innings, and the average velocity on his fastball was 93.3 mph, as compared to 94.1 mph prior to that stretch. Since returning from his injury, Davis has allowed seven runs on nine hits and three walks over 4.1 innings, and his average fastball velocity has dipped a little further to 92.9 mph.
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Alex Colome has been perfect in his 14 save opportunities with the White Sox this season, and if not for having thrown 39 pitches against the Nationals on Tuesday, he almost certainly would have had a crack at his 15th save on Thursday against the Yankees. However, with Colome apparently unavailable, Rick Renteria gave us a possible preview of what the bullpen pecking order could look like if (or more likely when) Colome is traded.

The game was tied, 4-4, heading into the top of the seventh inning, and Renteria gave the inning to Evan Marshall. After keeping the Yankees off the board (Marshall is now up to 16.1 innings with a 0.00 ERA), the White Sox grabbed the lead in the bottom of the seventh with a Leury Garcia leadoff home run off Adam Ottavino. Kelvin Herrera took over in the eighth inning and received his sixth hold. Aaron Bummer, who has recently moved into an eighth-inning setup role, came in for the save and allowed nothing more than a Clint Frazier single. The save was the first of Bummer’s career.
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Blake Treinen captured his 15th save of the season on Tuesday night against the Rays, but he was fortunate to have had a two-run cushion entering the bottom of the ninth inning. In starting off with a four-pitch walk to Brandon Lowe, Treinen followed in his recent trend of not throwing enough strikes. Over his six innings pitched in the month of June, he has issued seven walks while locating in the strike zone at an anemic 31.9 percent rate and throwing first-pitch strikes just 41.4 percent of the time.

The walk came back to hurt Treinen, as Lowe scored on a two-out Willy Adames single to cut the Athletics’ lead to one run. However, he stranded Adames by getting Kevin Kiermaier to ground out for the final out.
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I know we’ve heard this before, but Chris Woodward is saying once again that he is close to returning Jose Leclerc to the Rangers’ closer role. The last time Woodward raised this possibility, Shawn Kelley was on the verge of coming off the IL, and in a surprise move, he put Kelley in a save situation the day he was activated and five days after he had lumps removed from his vocal cords (which turned out to be benign).

Maybe Kelley staved off that seemingly inevitable move by nailing down the Rangers’ 4-3 win over the Orioles on Thursday night. If Leclerc is going to take his old job back, it won’t happen in Friday night’s series opener against the Athletics, as neither he nor Kelley will be available. While there is still a lull in Leclerc’s closer activity, now is the time to add him. He is still available in at least 40 percent of leagues on ESPN, CBS and Yahoo. Over his last 11.2 innings, he has been showing the form that made him one of the top relievers in the second half of 2018, posting a 1.54 ERA, 0.43 WHIP, 57.5 percent K% and 5.0 percent BB%.
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The Cubs activated Pedro Strop on Tuesday, and we quickly found out there would be no easing-in period for him. Kyle Hendricks gave the Cubs seven strong innings against the Rockies, and when he left with a 5-3 lead, erstwhile closer Steve Cishek came in to pitch the eighth inning. Newcomer Carlos Gonzalez hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning that extended the lead to three runs, and then Joe Maddon called on Strop for the save in the ninth.

Though only one of his 17 pitches resulted in a swinging strike, Strop’s return was drama-free, as he induced three ground ball outs. His average fastball velocity of 93.8 mph was only slightly below his prior average of 94.3 mph. Strop is starting to find some new owners now that he has been activated, but he is still widely available in 12-team mixed leagues. He is clearly an upgrade over Blake Parker, both in terms of likely usage and skill set, yet Parker is more widely owned in both CBS and ESPN leagues.
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It has not been easy to predict who will get the Red Sox’s next save on any given day, but with 20-20 hindsight, there has usually been a clear logic to Alex Cora’s bullpen usage decisions. I will fully admit, though, that I am lacking for a convincing explanation as to why he had Matt Barnes pitch the eighth inning with an 8-2 lead against the Yankees on Sunday night.

Perhaps Barnes needed to get some work in? Not likely, as he, Brandon Workman and Marcus Walden all pitched with the Red Sox trailing on Saturday after not having been used in four days. Maybe Cora was being extra cautious with a tough part of the Yankees’ lineup coming up? That’s more likely, as the 1-2-3 hitters — DJ LeMahieu, Luke Voit and Gary Sanchez kicked off the Yankees’ portion of the inning. Barnes allowed each of them to reach base, and then LeMahieu scored on a balk. Voit and Sanchez would eventually score, too, whittling the Red Sox’s lead down to three runs.
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Wednesday was not a good day for the two best closers of 2018. Edwin Diaz blew his second save of the season after entering the bottom of the ninth with an 8-5 lead against the Dodgers. Coming into the game, the Mets’ closer had allowed little damage when facing lefties, holding them to a collective .071/.133/.214 slash line, but Joc Pederson and Max Muncy defied the trend, hitting back-to-back homers to begin the Dodgers’ half of the inning. Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger followed that up with consecutive doubles, with Bellinger’s erasing the lead. Diaz would face three more batters but would only retire the last one. Unfortunately, the batter was Alex Verdugo, who hit a walk-off sacrifice fly.

Just as he did a year ago, Diaz is missing a lot of bats (17.3 percent SwStr%), but despite that, he has already equaled last season’s total of home runs allowed (five). That may be something of a fluke, as his flyball rate is up only slightly, from 35.3 to 37.0 percent, as is his average exit velocity allowed on flies and liners, from 91.5 to 92.1 mph (per Baseball Savant). It may be a good time to get in touch with a frustrated Diaz owner.
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Tuesday night’s games confirmed for us what we have learned all too well through the first two months of the season, at least as it concerns the closer situations for the Twins, Red Sox and Rays. Their managers are committed to not having a set closer, and on any given night, they can make an unexpected decision in the late innings.

The final two innings of the Twins’ 5-3 win over the Brewers started off normally enough. Blake Parker came in for the top of the eighth with the Twins up, 5-0, and while that’s not his normal type of spot, he had appeared only twice in the previous 11 games. In yielding Keston Hiura’s two-run homer, Parker created a save situation, and it was no surprise to see Taylor Rogers come in to try to finish it off in the ninth. He started off the frame by hanging a slider to Yasmani Grandal, which he drove into the second deck to cut the lead down to two. Rogers rebounded to strike out Mike Moustakas and Jesus Aguilar, and it looked as if he was about to walk away with his fifth save.
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The Red Sox did something on Sunday that they hadn’t done since April 21. They had a reliever in consecutive save situations. Marcus Walden got the team’s last save chance, back on Wednesday against the Blue Jays, and in giving up a Danny Jansen RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, his first save opportunity of the season was an unsuccessful one. The 30-year-old righty made amends on Sunday, closing out a 4-1 win over the Astros with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

So should we assume Walden is the Red Sox’s new closer? Probably not, if for no other reason than Alex Cora doesn’t seem to be too concerned about using a specific reliever consistently in that role. Also, he had Matt Barnes pitch the eighth inning, starting off against the 9-1-2 hitters. Cora still seems to favor Barnes against some of the tougher batters in the opposing lineup (on Sunday, he wound up facing Alex Bregman and Michael Brantley), and if some combination of the 2-3-4 hitters were due up in the ninth inning, I suspect Cora would use Barnes then.
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Pedro Strop is close to returning for the Cubs, but will he also return to the ninth inning? Because nothing is ever easy in fantasy baseball, the answer is not clear.

Joe Maddon has stated previously that he does not have to go with a single closer, yet he has leaned heavily on Steve Cishek in Strop’s absence. Still, that should raise some doubt about whether Strop will have save opportunities all to himself when he comes back from his IL stint for a strained left hamstring. His return could happen in a matter of days, as he is scheduled to throw a bullpen session on Saturday and then may rejoin the team without having to go on a rehab assignment.
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