Bullpen Depth Charts: Relievers To Stream — 5/3

Welcome back to Relievers to Stream for Wins and Saves! This will bring you up-to-date bullpen depth charts every morning for the day’s games and makes for a great tool for those of you looking to stream saves or wins. This series runs seven days a week, so be sure to check in every morning to get your daily bullpen fix!

Notes

Schedule notes:

• The following teams are off today: Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, White Sox, Astros, Braves, Marlins, Nationals, Reds, and Diamondbacks. Pretty much everyone in these bullpens, with the exception of a long reliever or two, should be available to pitch when they resume play on Tuesday.
• Even with a shortened slate of ten games, there are plenty of win vulture opportunities out there. The Mets and Mariners have yet to announce a starter. Unfortunately, no, this does not line up with Carlos Carrasco’s timeline, so the Mets will likely be throwing out a placeholder. It’s possible that Joey Lucchesi gets a call-up to fill in the gap, but they also have long men Robert Gsellman and Sean Reid-Foley fresh and ready to work multiple innings without the need for a roster move. The Mariners could go with Justin Dunn on normal four days’ rest or use recently recalled Erik Swanson to fill the hole left by Marco Gonzales‘ injury and maintain the six-man rotation.
• Top prospect Daniel Lynch is slated to make his debut for the Royals today against the Indians. The team’s normal long man, Ervin Santana, threw four innings on Friday and with Kris Bubic pitching yesterday, I doubt they’re looking for him to piggyback either. My best guess is for Lynch to go four innings or so, maybe five if he’s looking great, and for Tyler Zuber to take over for a couple of innings after that.
• Miguel Diaz is filling in as a starter for the Padres against the Pirates. This represents your best win vulture opportunity of the day. Craig Stammen is looking like the best bet in these kinds of situations. He did throw an inning on Saturday, but he has thrown three innings after one off day before this year.

• Alex Reyes secured his seventh save of the season for the Cardinals after an eight-inning gem from Carlos Martínez. That’s six strikeouts compared to one hit and no walks over the past four innings for Reyes after I sounded the alarm bells on him last week. It’s too early to say ‘he’s righted the ship’ considering how many problems he had in April, but May is a new month, and perhaps the control sticks.
• Kyle Crick and Richard Rodríguez both logged clean innings for the Pirates and have now worked a combined 21.1 scoreless innings in 2021. They’ve been surprisingly one of the most effective one-two bullpen punches in the league and should continue to make sure to capitalize on the few opportunities the Pirates give them.

• The Marlines were playing from behind and threw some of their less consequential middle relievers yesterday. With a day off today, the back of their bullpen should be completely ready to roll on Tuesday.
• The Nationals bullpen will benefit from two full days off after Max Scherzer went the distance on Sunday in advance of their off day today. Coming off a five-game week, this bullpen is likely as fresh as it will be all year excluding the all-star break.

• Gregory Soto logged a clean ninth inning striking out two and was the only Tigers reliever to see work. Walks remain an issue for him, but he’s generating weaker contact due to an increased usage of his slider. More ground balls and fewer barrels generally lead to success in the long-term even if the strikeouts don’t follow. He’s likely the most interesting reliever the Tigers have.
• Aroldis Chapman punched out two in the ninth and needed just ten pitches to dispatch the Tigers and earn his sixth save. His numbers on the year are utterly ridiculous as he’s struck out nearly 70% of the batters he’s faced in his ten innings of work. He’s making a strong case to yet again be considered the best reliever in baseball.

• Sean Newcomb continued to look rough in his return from the IL giving up three runs and recording just one out. He was looking really promising to begin the year, but you’re going to want to hold off until his velocity and control come back.
• Rafael Dolis secured a four-pitch, one-out save on Sunday, his third of the year. Dolis hasn’t allowed a run in his past five appearances, lowering his ERA to 2.84 on the year. Dolis will be marked as red by rule, but with only four pitches thrown this outing, he’ll likely be available on Monday.

• Craig Kimbrel took the tough-luck loss in this extra-inning affair. He allowed a leadoff single to Nick Castellanos which was enough to score the planted runner on second due to the extra-innings rule. It wasn’t a bad pitch and it wasn’t hard contact, but it earns Kimbrel the loss due to this weird rule and this weird game. He’ll be marked as red in today’s depth chart, but only threw five pitches and could be available for a third day of work.
• Yikes. Double yikes. Triple yikes. The man who seemed to be the savior of this beleaguered Reds bullpen, Tejay Antone, showed himself to be no different than his teammates as he gave up four runs in the top of the eighth to allow the Cubs to tie the game. Antone is still the guy to own out of that bullpen, but how do you trust anyone after the way they’ve pitched as a unit this year? For what it’s worth, Lucas Sims does have a 37% K-rate and a 2.31 xERA along with a pretty sexy Statcast chart but that’s of little consolation to people who’ve tried to roster him this year (like me). I’d love to say that Sims is going to figure it out and prove himself to be the go-to guy in the ninth like I know he can be, but I can’t say that I haven’t moved on in most leagues where I had him rostered.

• Who is this Kent Emmanuel guy? Another clean inning with two strikeouts for him against the Rays yesterday has to have you thinking about whether he can step up as a holds option in an injury-riddled bullpen. Looking at his stuff and lack of ability to generate swinging strikes at any level he’s pitched at, my short answer is ‘don’t hold your breath’.
• Look at Diego Castillo go! Seven saves on the year now including three in the past six days. Don’t get scared off if two other Rays get saves next week and not Castillo. He’s a guy you can trust and the saves will come even if the Rays are a bit wonky about it.

• The Royals-Twins series featured three blowouts with none of the three games finishing with less than eight runs separating the two teams. As such, Josh Staumont didn’t pitch and Greg Holland only threw one inning the whole series. They’re fresh going into their series on Monday.
• Likewise, we didn’t see any of Taylor Rogers and only got one inning of Tyler Duffey so the back end of the Twins bullpen is ready to roll as well.

• Another day, another three strikeouts for James Karinchak. The Indians opted to use their top two arms along with Emmanuel Clase to close out a 5-0 win against the White Sox. They each worked two games of the three-game series, so they’d likely get a couple of games off if they’re called upon again on Monday.
• Liam Hendriks was used in a low-leverage role, striking out two in a scoreless eighth while his team was down five. He hadn’t pitched since Thursday and, with an off day on Monday, the team likely just saw this as an opportunity to keep Hendriks fresh. In other news, I had such high hopes for Codi Heuer. I’d really have to dive in to figure out exactly what’s going wrong, but it makes me very sad.

• The Dodgers went up big early in this one and got a great start from Julio Urías so they didn’t need much out of their bullpen in this one. They did get quite a bit of work on Saturday, though, so this game was quite helpful to keep everyone available for Monday’s slated game.
• The Brewers were determined to get their big time guys a rest on Sunday after a few days of heavy workloads for Josh Hader, Devin Williams, and J.P. Feyereisen. Hader worked four of five days between Tuesday and Saturday and Williams had worked five of eight days dating back to the previous Saturday. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Brewers were yet again hesitant on Monday to trot out their big guns with the workloads they’ve been having recently.

• Garrett Whitlock picked up a shaky fourth hold of the year allowing two hits and a run in the bottom of the seventh. Adam Ottavino faltered in the eighth allowing the Rangers to take the lead. Whitlock doesn’t have much of a chance to take over Barnes for closer, but he is definitely going to get more holds opportunities with how he’s performed so far.
• It’s now seven-for-seven for Ian Kennedy in save opportunities on the year. He needed just five pitches to induce three weak outs on Sunday. He’s up to 12 innings on the year and has yet to allow his first walk. I don’t know how sustainable this is, but he’s certainly earned his success so far.

• Paul Fry gave up his first run since Opening Day ending a nine and two-thirds innings scoreless streak. This run tied the game before Fry turned it over to Travis Lakins Sr. who had been rolling in his own right allowing no earned runs in his first eight innings pitched this year. Lakins Sr. proceeded to give up his first two earned runs of the year forcing him to be saddled with the loss. Would you believe the Orioles are top-five in the AL in bullpen ERA so far?  They blew it this time, but these guys are honestly a solid bunch.
• Lou Trivino picked up his fifth save of the year in shaky fashion. He allowed a leadoff double before later putting another runner on with a walk. Trey Mancini then his a 107.3 mph rope that unfortunately carried for the second out of the inning. Trivino isn’t exactly running away with the job, but he’s doing enough to stay just ahead of Jake Diekman and others in the pecking order for saves. I’d imagine more split opportunities going forward, though, especially when there are a couple of lefties due up in the ninth.

• Daniel Bard entered a tie ball game and completely imploded. He allowed four hits and four runs before having Jordan Sheffield come put him out of his misery. These were not hard-luck seeing-eye singles either. The exit velocities of the four hits were 108.6, 98.9, 101.7, and 105.1. It’s got to be tough to trust Bard in the ninth or on your fantasy team, but the thing is, I wouldn’t trust Mychal Givens that much more.
• Stefan Crichton worked a scoreless ninth in a non-save situation. Yes, he’s gotten a few saves on the year, but a career swinging strike rate of 8.2% including an 8.1% rate this year really makes it hard for me to trust him to be on my team.

• Aaron Slegers and Mike Mayers worked uneventful seventh and eighth innings. With Tony Watson going to the IL, there should be a couple more holds opportunities for Slegers for the next couple weeks.
• And we’ve flipped again! Kendall Graveman worked the eighth and Rafael Montero the ninth to give Montero his fourth save of the year. It is worth noting that Graveman was sent out to get the Angels’ 3-4-5 hitters including Mike Trout, so I’d say this is more a sign that Graveman is going to get the tougher matchups whether they come in the eighth or the ninth. Regardless, I want good relievers on my team even if their role at the moment isn’t ideal and Graveman is a really, really good reliever.

• Top relief prospect Camilo Doval bounced back from a rough outing on Saturday with a scoreless inning on Sunday with two punchouts. Relievers are volatile. Young pitchers are volatile. Young relievers are extremely volatile. He’s got the stuff to be a second-half closer for the Giants if they decide to sell and ship off Jake McGee. But, the Giants are currently, against all odds, first in their division, so how can we talk about them being sellers at the deadline right now? For now, he’ll be a solid source of holds, but is young and prone to volatility.
• The Padres got Keone Kela back from the IL and immediately put him back to work. He worked a scoreless sixth inning, retiring the side on 15 pitches. There’s a lot of competition for holds in the Padres’ pen, but, when healthy, Kela has been one of the most consistently solid among them over the past five years.

• Edwin Díaz allowed three earned runs on two hits and two walks before being rescued by Jeurys Familia, who earned the one-out save. It was Díaz’s first earned runs allowed in eight appearances, but it’s the force with which he imploded that likely has owners a bit startled. He ended up leaving the game with back tightness, so owners will have to monitor that to know how to handle the situation.
• Phillies fans had flashbacks of 2020 as Brandon Kintzler and José Alvarado combined to turn a 4-2 lead into an 8-4 deficit in the eighth. It was already Kintzler’s third outing with at least three runs allowed on the young season, so he may soon find himself out of high-leverage situations. The outing was particularly disappointing for Alvarado who had come in allowing just one run in eight innings this year. Control and health were the two big issues for Alvarado over the past two seasons and he seemed to have had both figured out in Philadelphia before this. We’ll just have to hope the control comes back in his next appearance.