The Pirates’ Bullpen: More Than Just Mark Melancon

It’s time for our Depth Chart Discussions to begin. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, bullpen, and rotation) and will begin breaking them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find them gathered here.

The Pirates’ relievers finished among the top ten bullpens in the league with a 3.24 ERA, 48 saves and 90 holds in ‘14, but fell towards the middle-to-end of the pack in FIP (3.72), K-BB% (13.1%) and WAR (0.7). The bulk of last year’s bullpen remains intact, but a late-season call-up and an offseason acquisition may make the Bucs’ bullpen better than it was in their last 162.

The Closer:

Mark Melancon

Some may neglect to include Mark Melancon’s name when discussing the elite closers in the game, but minimally, he deserves to be considered at the end of the that first tier or the top of the second tier of closers based on his efforts over the past two seasons. Melancon is coming off of back-to-back 72-game, 71-inning seasons with a sub-2.00 ERA, sub-1.00 WHIP and a K-BB% greater than 20%. Among qualified relievers in the last two seasons, only Craig Kimbrel, Greg Holland and Koji Uehara have earned more than Mark Melancon’s 4.4 WAR, only Koji Uehara has surrendered fewer walks than Melancon’s 1.20 BB/9 and no reliever has allowed fewer home runs per nine than his 0.19 HR/9.

Like many other hurlers, much of the recent success can be attributed to increased use of the cutter. The curveball, however, is the pitch that has earned the most whiffs (~25%) for the Bucs’ ninth-inning man over the past two seasons. Steamer believes Melancon is due for some regression in both the strikeout and ratio departments, but is projected to be among the top five closers in save totals. If you don’t mind investing in saves but don’t want to buck up for the likes of Craig Kimbrel or Aroldis Chapman, Mark Melancon might be the guy to target.

The Setup Men:

Tony Watson
Jared Hughes

Left-hander Tony Watson appeared in a career-high 78 games (77.1 IP) in 2014 and finished with a 1.63 ERA (2.69 FIP), a 1.02 WHIP and a 21.6% K-BB%. The southpaw notched 10 wins, two saves and 34 holds — good enough for second most in baseball behind only Tyler Clippard. He induced swings-and-misses at a career-best 12.8%, leading me to believe that the surging K% could be here to stay. Watson mixed his pitches a bit differently — Tony brought back the fourseam fastball, increased the use of the changeup and reduced the use of the slider — which could have resulted in the spike in strikeouts. Those targeting Watson shouldn’t count on him picking up ten wins again during his age-30 campaign, but a 20 or more holds with fine ratios and strikeouts is a reasonable expectation.

The Pirates and right-hander Jared Hughes avoided arbitration and agreed to a $1.075 million, one-year contract for the ‘15 season. Hughes went 7-5 in 63 games (64.1 IP) with a 1.96 ERA (3.99 FIP), a 1.09 WHIP and a rather pedestrian 6.6% K-BB%. But Hughes never made his living striking guys out, he’s a groundball guy, inducing worm-burners at over a 60% clip for his career. He did pick up 13 holds last season, but John Holdzkom will likely dip into that total this year if camp goes as planned.

The Rest:

John Holdzkom
Antonio Bastardo
Stolmy Pimentel
Radhames Liz
Bobby LaFromboise

As I alluded to above, John Holdzkom could find himself used in a set-up role following an impressive nine game stretch late in ‘14. The 27-year-old right-hander dished just nine frames for the Bucs, but he fanned 14 while walking just two en route to four holds. He possess a two-pitch arsenal — a fourseam fastball and a palmball, that BI classifies as a changeup — but the ~97 mph fourseamer is the primary offering, coming out of his hand close to 95% of the time. Keep tabs on Holdzkom’s progress during camp; he could be worth a roster spot on your squad depending on the role he earns and your league’s format.

Pittsburgh acquired southpaw Antonio Bastardo from the Phillies in December and avoided arbitration by inking him to a one-year, $3.1 million deal. He will bring a veteran presence to the bullpen along with a career 3.22 FIP and an 18.2% K-BB%. Bastardo has always been able to induce the swings-and-misses, but those numbers dipped a hair in ‘14 (11.9% SwStr%) while the amount of free passess he surrendered spiked to a career-worst (12.6% BB%). Pimentel, Liz and LaFramboise could round out the Bucs’ pen, but probably won’t have an impact from a fantasy standpoint.