Reliever Ranks – 7/24

Welcome back to the latest edition of our Reliever Ranks series! 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 looking to stream saves or wins. This series runs seven days a week, so check in every morning to get your daily bullpen fix!

 

Notes

 

Transaction and Schedule Notes

 

• All 30 teams played on Sunday and the following teams have a day off on Monday (7/25): NYY, TOR, CHW, MIN, NYM, and STL.

 

• Ryan Pressly returned from the paternity list and will immediately retake his 9th inning role in Houston
• Jeff Hoffman was placed on the 15-day IL by Cincinnati
• The Marlins made a flurry of roster moves including adding Huascar Brazoban and Jeff Brigham to the bullpen. Brazoban had a 24% K-BB ratio in AAA, so there’s a chance he could work his way into important innings in a struggling Marlins pen.

 

CHC 4 – PHI 3

• David Robertson worked around a hit and a walk to record his 14th save of the season. That makes six walks in 10.1 IPs this month as his walk rate continues to climb towards 12%. His xwOBA rolling chart seems to paint the picture of a player going into a slump who hasn’t quite been punished for it yet.
• Corey Knebel delivered another scoreless outing for Philadelphia retiring the side in order in the 8th. He’s now gone eleven straight appearances without allowing a run as he continues his push to take back a share of the 9th inning job. The Phillies may be active at the deadline to try to push for a wildcard spot and, depending on who they bring in to help in the bullpen, Knebel’s window to get back to 9th inning work may be closing.

 

TOR 8 – BOS 4

• With a four-run lead, Toronto elected to use all of their top arms except for Jordan Romano to close things out against Boston. Four pitchers combined to allow just two baserunners over the final three frames to ensure that Romano could take the day off and be completely rested for their next game on Tuesday.
• Boston’s bullpen finally settled down for the final four innings on Sunday after a pretty disastrous couple of series for them. In their past six games, the Boston bullpen has logged 32 IPs and allowed 41 runs (39 earned) for an ERA of 10.97. This is for the whole team across a six-game stretch. Even without the record-breaking 28-5 beatdown, they’ve been bad recently. With it, they’ve been historically bad.

 

LAA 9 – ATL 1

• Raisel Iglesias worked a scoreless 9th to shake some rust off after not having pitched since July 14th. He was having a bit of a rough stretch before the All-Star break and has yet to record a save this month as the Angels have hit a bit of a tailspin with this win raising their team record to 3-14 on the month. He should be ready and waiting when the team is finally able to string some wins together.
• Kenley Jansen also got some scheduled work in this game to shake the rust off after the All-Star break. He gave up a run on two hits with a strikeout in his inning of action. Jansen has also struggled a bit recently as he’s now given up five earned runs in his past seven innings, but his team has been winning so his ten saves since the beginning of June helps remove some of the sour taste left by the poor ratios.

 

MIA 6 – PIT 5 (10)

• The closer roulette wheel keeps spinning for Miami as now Jeff Brigham has recorded his first save of the year in his first appearance of the year. The Marlins initially held a 6-4 lead going into the bottom of the 9th and called upon Anthony Bass to close things out. Bass had allowed just one run in 22.2 IPs dating back to June 1st coming into the game, but he doubled that total on Sunday alone giving up two runs (one earned) and allowing the Pirates to tie the game. The offense picked him up and gave him a win as a consolation prize. With Tanner Scott having pitched the 6th and 7th innings yesterday and now Bass struggling in the 9th, I’d say roles in this bullpen are as fluid as ever. Proceed with caution.
• The Pirates called on David Bednar to try and hold the ship steady in the top of the 10th and give the offense a chance to win it. He surrendered two runs (one earned) on two hits and ended up taking the loss, his fourth. It was the third time in his last six outings he’s allowed multiple runs. Granted, one of them was the ghost runner, but it’s still an abnormal stretch of difficulty for Bednar who had previously been dominant the whole season.

 

NYY 6 – BAL 0

• Clarke Schmidt pitched the final three innings in relief for Yankees and picked up the long relief save, his first of the season. A rare situation for Schmidt as the Yankees were more than happy to give the rest of their bullpen the night off as they work to reshuffle roles with the loss of Michael King.
• Not much to see here as this typically strong bullpen struggled a bit in this one as they mainly used their mop-up crew to get them through the game.

 

STL 3 – CIN 6

• Not much to say about the St. Louis bullpen here. They used their depth guys to get through this game and none of the three have much upside for this season.
• A rare sight in Cincinnati as their pitching was by the book. Six innings from starter Tyler Mahle, then clean holds from Reiver Sanmartin and Alexis Díaz and finally a save from Hunter Strickland, his fifth. The worst bullpen in baseball by ERA put together a solid series against St. Louis, but chasing saves in this bullpen is still generally not advised.

 

MIN 9 – DET 1

• Another lopsided game here, so the Twins didn’t use any of their top arms. They also get a day off on Monday, so they’ll have their full bullpen rested and ready for their next game on Tuesday.
• Both Michael Fulmer and Alex Lange continued their recent struggles on Sunday allowing a combined five runs on seven hits with two walks while retiring just five batters. Fulmer has been outpitching his peripherals for a while and may be overtaken soon on the holds ladder by Joe Jiménez who has held excellent peripherals all year. Advanced stats still like Lange, so, if you’re searching for holds in the Tigers bullpen, I’d say Lange and Andrew Chafin are safer bets moving forward than Fulmer with Jiménez as a potential dark horse.

 

TBR 2 – KCR 4

• Brooks Raley took his first loss of the year as he gave up a run on three hits in the bottom of the 7th and the Rays were unable to come back. He remains among the cluster of guys who could get a save on any given night for Tampa Bay, but he’s done nothing so far to separate himself from the pack.
• Dylan Coleman worked the 8th inning for his eighth hold, however the Royals turned to Taylor Clarke for the 9th inning and he recorded his second save of the season. Scott Barlow had thrown 20 pitches the previous night, but Josh Staumont had the night off Saturday. He had thrown 29 pitches on Friday, so perhaps he’s still working through the neck injury that sidelined him for a few weeks? This is a situation worth monitoring as Barlow is a candidate to be moved before the trade deadline. If he gets moved and Staumont still isn’t fully healthy, Clarke may be waiting in the wings for some sneaky second half saves.

 

CLE 3 – CWS 6

• Just a couple mop-up innings for the Cleveland bullpen in this one. Not much to see here.
• Despite being up 6-0 and working on 0 days’ rest, both Kendall Graveman and Liam Hendriks came out to work the 8th and 9th innings and close out the game. They nearly pitched the Guardians back into it allowing three runs on four hits including two homers. It’s a questionable decision to send your top two guys out there again with a six run lead, but they had just had a double header on Saturday, so maybe they were working with limited availability. Also, maybe Hendriks likes getting right back out there after allowing runs. In any case, the White Sox have Monday off, so they’ll be able to get some rest for their top arms after a couple days of heavy usage.

 

COL 9 – MIL 10

• It was a rough day for veteran Alex Colomé. He was brought in to shut down the bottom of the 8th with an 8-7 lead, but he allowed three runs and couldn’t finish the inning. He took the blown save and the loss. As always, the only guy worth consideration in the Rockies bullpen is Daniel Bard.
• Josh Hader earned his 28th save, but not before allowing another pair of hits and a run. After how he ended the first half, any converted save is welcome news for anyone following Hader. He sat 98 in this one and the slider seemed to have a bit more depth, so I don’t think there’s anything to do but hold on.

 

TEX 11 – OAK 8

• Brett Martin was brought in to get some maintenance work in the 9th inning when his team was up 11-5. He proceeded to give up back-to-back-to-back homers before shutting the game down. He had only allowed one homer on the year coming into the game, so this really seems like an aberration caused by shaking the rust off in a low-leverage situation. Other than this outing, he’s been pretty solid filling in for Joe Barlow.
• Despite the close final score, Oakland was down big for most of the game, so only a couple of guys got some makeup work. Dany Jiménez is progressing in his rehab, but he appears to still be more than a week away.

 

WSH 4 – ARI 3

• Kyle Finnegan faced four batters, but recorded the final five outs for the Nationals to secure his second save of the season. He’s the unquestioned closer with Tanner Rainey out for the year, but, of course, team context will limit his value down the stretch.
• The Diamondbacks carried a 3-2 lead going into the 7th inning, but Ian Kennedy and Joe Mantiply both allowed runs with the latter being tagged with his third loss of the year. Mark Melancon also got some work to shake the All-Star break rust off. He walked two, but delivered a scoreless inning. His ERA has been trending down a bit recently, but his season WHIP still stands at a troubling 1.56.

 

HOU 8 – SEA 5

• Ryan Pressly returned from the paternity list and delivered a clean inning for his 20th save of the season. He has now retired the past 30 batters he’s faced since his June 23rd meltdown in New York. A perfect game plus an inning spread across nine appearances.
• Speaking of impressive streaks, Andrés Muñoz hasn’t allowed an earned run in 17.2 IPs since June 13th. He has 33 strikeouts and 3 walks in that stretch. He and Pressly have been two of the most dominant relievers in baseball over the past month plus.

 

SFG 4 – LAD 7

• Dominic Leone and Tyler Rogers combined to give up three runs in the bottom of the seventh to let the Dodgers pull away. The Giants were unable to claw back leaving Leone saddled with the loss. Camilo Doval worked the 9th anyway to get some reps after a long break.
• The Dodgers bullpen combined for 4.2 scoreless innings with Evan Phillips snagging a win and Craig Kimbrel locking down his 17th save. That makes six straight scoreless outings for Kimbrel as he tries to convince the Dodgers to not go out and get a closer at the deadline. They’ll certainly be in the market for some help at the back of their bullpen, but it remains to be seen how that will affect Kimbrel’s role.

 

SDP 5 – NYM 8

• The Padres are still hoping some guys to consistently step up to take the 7th and 8th innings. Steven Wilson seemed like he might do that earlier in the year, but he just hasn’t had the consistency you’d need to be a consistent source of holds. The Padres might be bringing in some help which would push guys like Wilson out of the holds conversation for good.
• The Mets went up big in the 6th and 7th innings, but the bullpen allowed the Padres to come back just enough for Edwin Díaz to be called upon to shut things down for his 21st save of the season. Diaz has been the most consistently dominant closer in baseball and he’s allowed just one hit and one walk in his nine innings of work in July while recording 18 punchouts.

 

 

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