Bullpen Depth Charts: Relievers To Stream — 5/31

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 Marlins, Red Sox, Braves, and Mets were all rained out on Sunday and had no bullpen usage.
• The Indians and White Sox are scheduled to play a double-header which will be the second straight double-header for the Indians.
• Only four teams have a scheduled day off Monday: the Blue Jays, Rangers, Marlins, and Rockies.
• Your best chance for a win vulture or even a save vulture comes in the White Sox bullpen. Their second game of the day is scheduled to be a bullpen game headed up by Jimmy Lambert. Liam Hendriks has also thrown three innings in two days and is likely not available for either game today. With the possibility of a win or a save on the table, I think Evan Marshall is well worth your time today if he’s available.

 

Injuries and Transactions

 

• Detroit sent Bryan Garcia to AAA Toledo.
• Oakland activated Jesús Luzardo and will be moving him to the bullpen. It’s unclear what role he’ll take on and how they’ll go about stretching him out, but he was used in the ninth on Sunday. Could be interesting.
• San Francisco placed Caleb Baragar on the 10-day IL with left elbow inflammation. Zack Littell should continue to see plenty of hold opportunities in the sixth and seventh innings.

 

Yesterday’s Performances

 

• Daniel Bard was his own closer on Sunday. He entered with the Rockies trailing by one in the eighth and delivered a scoreless inning. The Rockies took the lead in the ninth and he was called upon to close out his own win, which he did. Bard’s slider was really working for him today as he went 4/14 on whiffs with his slider and generated another four called strikes for a 57% CSW. The problem is that this was the Pirates and his slider isn’t always working that well.
• Richard Rodríguez blew his first save of the season and took his first loss of the season. He was called upon with two outs in the eighth to clean up a mess left by Kyle Crick and he did so, but came out in the ninth a bit wild. He’s successfully gone more than three outs twice this year, but never in a save situation. Rodríguez hasn’t been quite as dominant in May and this was just his third save opportunity all month.

 

• Josh Hader saved his 12th game of the season and is still perfect in save opportunities on the year. He’s allowed just one run in May in 11 IP with a 17:4 K:BB ratio. After struggling to find the strike zone a bit this year, Hader’s strike percentage has recovered and he’s throwing harder than he ever has at the major league level. All signs point to continued dominance from him.
• With Tanner Rainey’s continued struggles, someone else in the Nationals bullpen is going to have to step up in the sixth and seventh innings. Maybe this is finally the year Wander Suero does it? His ERA now stands at an even 3.00 after a scoreless inning on Sunday and he hasn’t walked a single batter in May to go along with 11 punchouts. Other holds hopeful Austin Voth allowed his fourth home run in his last six appearances in his inning of work.

 

• The Blue Jays played two against the Indians and went into the seventh with the lead in both of them. In game one, Rafael Dolis worked the sixth and handed it off to Jordan Romano for his third save of the year. Romano is putting together a stellar May and fantasy owners should rejoice at seeing him in the ninth again. This is the guy you want back there. In game two, the Blue Jays decided not to use either of these two again and instead decided to try to get Tyler Chatwood to get the final six outs of the game to close it out. Boy, it did NOT work out. He allowed two of his inherited runners to score in the sixth and, after recording the first out of the seventh, proceeded to walk FOUR STRAIGHT, I don’t see evidence of something physically wrong with the guy, but something isn’t right here. He issued five free passes in his first 17 innings and has now walked nine in his past three and a third.
• The Indians were playing from behind for the majority of both games, but Emmanuel Clase still got some work. It was his first work since last Monday and it wasn’t a disaster. Nine walks and nine strikeouts with 10+ hits per nine in May does not inspire confidence, though.

 

• The Phillies were playing from behind and trotted out a trio of struggling relievers in Connor Brogdon, Archie Bradley, and Brandon Kintzler. I continue to have faith that Brogdon will eventually figure it out and be a really good reliever. His 28% swinging strike rate in this one was evidence of that. On the year, his 13% swinging strike rate is way too good for a 17% K-rate. Watch from afar for those strikeouts. When they come, I think he’ll be really good.
• The Rays used a number of guys in their stable and continue to seemingly unpredictably play matchups. In a non-save situation, it was Pete Fairbanks in the eighth and Diego Castillo in the ninth. It was Castillo’s second day of work in a row after a somewhat strange week-long absence where J.P. Feyereisen got three save opportunities. The Rays will continue to Ray. Don’t read too much into Feyereisen getting three straight save chances. He, Fairbanks, Castillo, and others will all log saves at some point this year.

 

• It was a quasi-bullpen game for the Yankees where they strung together a few long guys to give both the starters and the back end of the bullpen a break. It’s not relevant from a fantasy perspective.
• Don’t let the three singles fool you. The three hits Michael Fulmer gave up had expected batting averages of .210, .120, and .300. Only one of them was very hard hit at all. Since May 5th, Fulmer has a 1.35 ERA and 15 Ks in 13.1 IPs.

 

• The Padres piggybacked Joe Musgrove onto Blake Snell’s start and they didn’t need any more help from the bullpen.
• The Astros bullpen was only called upon in the ninth inning when the team was already sporting a six-run lead. Andre Scrubb did his best to give fantasy owners a save opportunity, but he managed to get three outs before he could be replaced.

 

• It was the Royals’ first save chance since Josh Staumont went on the IL and did they give it to one of their exciting, young arms? No! Of course not! They gave it to Greg Holland. The more fantasy-friendly Kyle Zimmer and Scott Barlow were used to get nine outs to bridge the gap from the starter. Yes, Holland converted the save, and yes, he has the experience, but this isn’t a guy you want to be relying on while Staumont is out. Instead of rushing to get Holland, just hold on to Zimmer and hope he gets the next crack.
• Alex Colomé worked another scoreless inning and now sports a 1.74 ERA in 10.1 May innings. He’ll be back in high-leverage situations soon, I’d guess.
  

 

• Paul Fry got his first work in a week and struck out two. This guy’s slider is really good and, honestly, I think it’s between him and Hunter Harvey in the battle for who is closing for this team in the second half.
• Oh, you thought he was done after recording two saves yesterday? Nope! Liam Hendriks recorded his third save in two days retiring the side in order. He was consistently over 98 mph on the day and wasn’t lacking in command. He has to get a day off despite the double-header tomorrow, right? If so, he ends May going eight-for-eight in save opportunities with a 19:2 strikeout to walk ratio in 11.2 scoreless innings.

 

• Tejay Antone picked up his third save of the year, this one of the four-out variety. Antone continues to be the Reds’ most effective reliever, but his versatility might prevent him from being used as a traditional closer. Meanwhile, Lucas Sims still sports an xERA of 2.83.
• The Cubs bullpen continues to surprise. Who would have thought that Dan Winkler would be working on a 15-inning scoreless streak? Five and a third more scoreless innings from this pen that doesn’t seem to have a weakness.

 

• Raisel Iglesias earned a four-out save, his ninth of the year. After a rough April, Iglesias has started to put it together with five saves and two wins in May with a 17:2 strikeout to walk ratio in 12 innings.
• Jesús Luzardo worked the ninth inning out of the bullpen in this one and could be seeing more work out of the pen moving forward. Luzardo really seemed to let it rip and only needed eight pitches to retire the side. After averaging 95/96 on his fastball as a starter, all three of the four-seamers he threw were over 98. He also threw five curveballs out of those eight pitches after coming into the game using it just 17.5% of the time. There are lots of questions remaining here, but the sample size of Luzardo out of the bullpen is more than just one inning. Remember how effective he was in 2019 as a reliever? I say grab him if he’s available and hold him if you got him and let the role be determined later.

 

• Jake McGee picked up his 12th save of the season, but his first opportunity since May 18th. Tyler Rogers hadn’t worked Saturday, but was coming off a blown save on Friday. McGee, conversely, had logged four straight hitless appearances before Sunday, so maybe the manager was trying to go with the hot hand. It’s unfortunately looking like another shared closer role.
• The Dodgers were playing from behind the whole game and only succeeded in making it close in the end. They did end up using Joe Kelly and Victor González anyway. González continues to be just a master of contact suppression. His hard hit rate and average exit velocity are both near the top of the league.

 

• The Cardinals were way down by the middle innings and didn’t use any fantasy-relevant relievers in this one.
• Riley Smith picked up his first save of the year via the little-used three-inning save rule. He accomplished the rare feat of having more strikeouts than swinging strikes with four and three respectively. Congratulations to him for getting his first career save. It may very well be his last.

 

• Josh Sborz is quietly putting up a pretty solid season. If the Rangers got may hold chances, he’d be a decent play, but he’s currently tied for second on the team with two holds.
• The Mariners turned to Keynan Middleton for the save on Sunday, his fourth. Rafael Montero, if he had been called upon, would have worked for the fifth time in seven days, so I’m not surprised Middleton got the call here and I don’t necessarily think it’s indicative of a full timeshare here. Still, Montero’s usage has been all over the place this year and it’s a bit of a mystery where in the game he’ll turn up next. Watch out for Kendall Graveman to return from the COVID-IL sometime in the next week and take back the spot of highest leverage arm.