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 an excellent 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
- After a full slate of games yesterday, we head into the final rest day of the season with 12 games on the schedule and just six teams with a day off: CHW, OAK, SEA, WAS, CIN, and COL.
- Tampa Bay will turn to Collin McHugh to open tonight’s matchup in Houston before handing the ball off to Ryan Yarbrough, who is the clear best “bullpen” option for the day. Houston has the best wRC+ in the league against lefties, though, so if you’d prefer to stream someone with less risk of exploding, keep an eye on Dodgers: Tony Gonsolin takes the mound for them tonight against the Padres, and he hasn’t made it out of the fifth inning in over half his appearances over the past two months. Long reliever Evan Phillips, who hasn’t appeared since Saturday, has a solid shot to appear and bag a win, and while there’s the risk that he just doesn’t pitch, he’s also less likely to lose you a matchup.
Transaction Notes
- Brewers reliever Devin Williams fractured his throwing hand punching a wall and will likely be out through the end of the playoffs.
- The Yankees activated Jonathan Loasiga from the injured list. He had been on the IL since September 5th with a strained rotator cuff. Andrew Heaney was optioned in a corresponding move.
- The Astros optioned long reliever Josh James to the minors to recall Michael Brantley from the IL.
Yesterday’s Performances
- The Mariners used the entirety of their late-inning committee last night for the second night in a row last night in their 4–2 win over the A’s. Diego Castillo allowed a game-tying home run, but he picked up the win after the Mariners took the lead in the following half-inning. Paul Sewald held the lead in the 8th, and Drew Steckenrider picked up his second save in a row — his 13th on the year — with a clean 9th inning. The team is one of six to have the day off today, and there should be no worries about their availability for the team’s pivotal weekend series against the Angels.
- Dylan Floro (B2B) picked up his 13th save of the year in the Marlins’ 3–2 win over the Mets, striking out two. Floro is within reach of finishing with a sub-3.00 ERA for the second season in a row despite a pedestrian 22.4% strikeout rate, so tonight is more the exception than the rule for him. But his excellent soft contact numbers from last year have mostly held up: despite giving up a lot more total contact than many of his peers, only 21.7% of his PAs have ended in hard contact, which is roughly 80th percentile this year.
- Camilo Doval picked up his second save in two nights in the Giants’ 1–0 over the Diamondbacks, striking out two. Doval should have the day off today after back-to-back appearances, so Tyler Rogers is likely to be the closer-of-the-night for San Fransisco, but Doval’s performance is worth watching as his team continues playing into October. His fastball touches 100 mph, but he only throws it 40% of the time, relying instead on a slider that just misses money pitch status with a 37.7% chase rate, a 44.4% zone rate, and a 19% swinging-strike rate. That’s amounted to a 32.4% strikeout rate and a 3.24 ERA. Command issues have been a problem before, but his sub-10% walk rate in the majors is encouraging. Jake McGee threw a bullpen yesterday and could return soon from his oblique injury, but Doval has made a case to be the go-to late-inning arm for the Giants this postseason.
- Toronto’s Jordan Romano picked up his 22nd save of the year in the Blue Jays’ 6–5 over the Yankees. Romano is tied for fourth in saves since the All-Star break with 15 just ahead of Liam Hendriks, and aside from Hendriks’ seeming inability to walk anyway, that comparison hasn’t been far off: Romano just trails him in WHIP (0.84 to 0.74), strikeouts (45 to 42 in about the same number of batters), ERA (2.51 to 2.43), and even wins (4 to 3). Does the extra save tip the fantasy scale back in Romano’s direction? Almost certainly not, but either way, Romano will merit discussion in the elite tier of closers next year.
- Codi Heuer finished off the Cubs’ 3–2 win over the Pirates. Heuer closed out this game with three straight field outs, and he has now struck out just 17 of the 115 batters he’s faced in a Cubs uniform. Both his spin rates and pitch movement have fallen off significantly this year compared to his breakout 2020 season, with the biggest drops coming in June. It’s easy to write off Heuer and others of his ilk who seemingly lost the ability to pitch in the post-goop era, but as with any pitcher talented enough to make it to the majors to begin with, it’s worth watching what he can do with a full offseason to find his new self.
- Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen struck out the side to finish off the Padres, picking up his 37th save of the year. Jansen is in rare form to close the season: his rolling 100 PA strikeout rate is now at 37%, a mark he hasn’t crossed since mid-2019. This isn’t to say that he’s back to his 2016 self, but it’s a signal that he’s right and healthy going into what will almost certainly be a pivotal first week of October. He’s putting a bow on what will probably finish as his best season since 2017 — his 2.26 ERA is his best since back-to-back sub-2.00 seasons in 2016/17, and his saves, strikeout, and WHIP numbers rival his best since then as well.
Bullpen Depth Charts