Reliever Ranks – 8/1

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

 

• 10 teams are anticipating a day off on Monday: TB, TOR, LAA, OAK, ATL, PHI, CHC, MIL, STL, PIT
• The next doubleheader on the MLB schedule is the Rockies and Padres on Tuesday.

 

• Andrew Chafin of the Tigers is expected to be reinstated today and he’ll immediately take back his late-inning role.
• Likewise, Nick Martinez of the Padres is expected to be reinstated from the paternity list.
• Jimmy Herget returned to the Angels’ bullpen after dealing with a shoulder injury.

 

 

DET 1 – TOR 4

• Alex Lange struck out the side to continue his solid season in a Tigers bullpen that has the third-best ERA in baseball on the year. Who bet on the Orioles and Tigers having the two best bullpens in the AL by ERA in the month of July?
• Jordan Romano closed out his 24th save of the season and third save of the four-game series against Detroit with Tim Mayza picking up his tenth hold. It’s tough to top April where he logged double digit saves, but July was arguably the more dominant month for him. He allowed just four hits and one walk in 10.2 IPs of work converting all seven of his save chances.

 

STL 5 – WSH 0

• Fantasy managers were probably hoping for Andre Pallante to be allowed to let one more batter reach to create a save situation for Ryan Helsley, but manager Oliver Marmol played it safe. Helsley dominated the inning, striking out the first two batters he faced in a second and third, no outs jam to get out of the inning with the shutout in tact. Helsley closes out a nearly perfect July with just one unearned, extra-innings run to his name along with nineteen punchouts, three saves, and two wins in 11.2 IPs of work.
• The Nationals, despite losing Tanner Rainey, have been able to put together a solid month of relief in July and Steve Cishek has been a big reason for that. In 13.1 July innings, he’s given up five hits and one earned run (0.68 ERA) while striking out eighteen.

 

PHI 8 – PIT 2

• It would be amazing to see Mark Appel stick around on this Phillies rosters and make some consistent contributions. The peripherals don’t look amazing so far with just four Ks and two walks in nine innings, but a 1.00 ERA shows he’s gotten results at the end of the day.
• Tyler Beede delivered three more scoreless innings for the Pirates who have to be intrigued by what he’s given them over the past couple months. Across June and July, he sports a 1.96 ERA across 23.0 innings. The peripherals, however, don’t look super promising and indicate quite a bit of batted ball luck playing into that ERA right now. He flashed some strikeout potential in his years with the Giants, though, and was a somewhat popular deep sleeper coming into this year, so there may be something to unlock here down the stretch. The Pirates, however, don’t have the best track record recently of unlocking that type of potential.

 

ARI 0 – ATL 1

• Mark Melancon came on in the bottom of the ninth in a scoreless ball game and allowed the winning run to come around after three batters, earning him his ninth loss of the year. Melancon has calmed down over the past couple months after May in which he was among the worst-performing pitchers in baseball, but those past couple months of improved performance have still led to as many losses as saves (4).
• Working around a walk, Kenley Jansen was able to get out of the top of the ninth unscathed and hold on for his fifth win of the year. He did issue a walk, but he had a streak going earlier this week where he had faced 44 straight batters without allowing a walk, so control isn’t yet an issue for him.

 

KC 8 – NYY 6

• It was a back-and-forth game in the end with seven runs being scored in the final three innings, but Taylor Clarke finally stepped up for the Royals and held the Yankees scoreless in the 8th and 9th, giving the offense enough time to come back which gave Clarke his second victory of the season. In his last thirteen appearances, Clarke has allowed one earned run with thirteen strikeouts and three walks in fourteen innings.
• The Yankees held a 6-4 lead going into the 8th which, as of about a month ago, a healthy Michael King and a nearly untouchable Clay Holmes would have made nearly insurmountable. Ron Marinaccio worked the 8th and, while he did earn the hold, he allowed the lead to be cut in half in the process. Clay Holmes then gave up three in the top of the ninth to create what would become the final score. Seven of Holmes’ nine earned runs allowed on the year have come across two appearances here in July and eight walks plus three hit batsmen in nine innings in the month hints at something more going wrong than just some batted ball luck. The Yankees will likely be very aggressive in trying to improve their team over the next few days and, while it’s hard to believe Holmes could be at risk of losing his job after, essentially, two very bad outings, the Yankees may decide they see something they don’t like and start to look at other options.

 

MIL 2 – BOS 7

• After a couple days of heavy usage for the back end of the Milwaukee bullpen, the silver lining to the loss is that they got some rest for their high-leverage guys.
• Garrett Whitlock has been returned to the role in which he had so much success last year and he continues to have similar success this year. This time, he was first out of the bullpen to protect a 5-2 lead in the top of the 6th and earned a hold, his second, in exchange for his two scoreless innings. Since coming back from the IL and returning to the bullpen full-time in the middle of July, Whitlock has gone 10 IPs, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 Ks while also notching two saves. He seems to be both a multi-inning save candidate to close down games and a bulk reliever capable of following starters who only go four or five innings.

 

BAL 2 – CIN 3

• A rare blip for this Orioles bullpen that has been among the best in baseball this year. Félix Bautista allowed his first run in his past nine appearances to allow the Reds to take the lead in the 8th. Baltimore wasn’t able to come back leaving Bautista saddled with his third loss of the season.
• With Hunter Strickland on the bereavement list, it was always going to be a mystery who would get a save chance if one came up. Alexis Díaz initially came on with one out in the 7th and allowed the tying run to score in the 8th earning him a blown save, but the offense came through in the bottom of the frame. Buck Farmer was called upon for the save situation in the 9th and converted it for his first save of the season. The scoreless inning lowered his season ERA to 5.91.

 

CLE 5 – TBR 3

• It was a scheduled bullpen day for the Guardians and they closed it out with their two most dominant relievers, Trevor Stephan and Emmanuel Clase. Stephan earned his sixth hold and finishes out the month with seventeen punchouts and no walks. Clase earned his 23rd save and closes out another dominant month. Since June 1st, Clase has 25 IPs with 9 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 27 Ks (0.36 ERA, 0.44 WHIP).
• The Rays bullpen likely didn’t expect to have to give 4.2 innings in this one, but they powered through and didn’t allow a run. Jalen Beeks returned from injury and slots into a middle relief/opener role.

 

NYM 9 – MIA 3

• The Mets put up three in the top of the first and never looked back, so it was only mop-up duty in this one after the starter left the game. As far as mop-up duty goes, though, Stephen Nogosek has been a very good janitor allowing just one earned run in 14.2 innings.
• Equally on the Marlins side, the Fish took this opportunity to rest most of their top arms. There’s not much intrigue in their bullpen usage today.

 

SEA 2 – HOU 3

• The Mariners bullpen did as much as they could, recording five scoreless innings before succumbing to the unearned extra innings runner in the bottom of the 10th, but the offense wasn’t able to provide any support. Erik Swanson has been lights out all year and still doesn’t have an outing where he’s allowed multiple runs. It was interesting to see pitchers like Swanson and Sewald used for the second day in a row while they avoided using Andrés Muñoz after his rough outing on Thursday.
• Ryan Pressly worked a scoreless ninth and Héctor Neris delivered a dominant 10th, stranding the extra-innings runner, which earned him his fourth victory of the campaign. Pressly allowed his first runs since June 23rd when he blew the save on Saturday, but he bounced right back in this one to help his team to a victory.

 

OAK 1 – CWS 4

• Oakland only needed five outs from their bullpen in this one, but the big story is Dany Jiménez successfully working a rehab outing in AAA and being on the doorstep of returning. I can’t imagine Lou Trivino holds onto the job if Jiménez is back to pitching like he did in April and May.
• Just like TLR drew it up for the White Sox in this one. Six innings from their starter, holds from Joe Kelly and Kendall Graveman, and save number 20 for Liam Hendriks to close things out. Much like fellow closer drafted in the early rounds Josh Hader, Hendriks’ has had stretches where he’s looked just as dominant as last year and the strikeout and walk numbers seem to indicate continued dominance. However, there have been stretches where he hasn’t looked quite the same especially with his offspeed pitches. Such is life as a closer. With such small sample sizes, a bad week or two can shade an entire year of production.

 

LAD 7 – COL 3

• While it wasn’t a save situation, Craig Kimbrel continued to lower his walk rate on Sunday by delivering a scoreless 9th with two strikeouts. His walk rate, which sat at 11.3% on June 20th, has now fallen to a much more manageable 9.2% and, while the result hasn’t been dominance quite yet, it’s an assuring sign since Kimbrel will almost assuredly have an important role to play in this bullpen in October.
• There’s absolutely nothing remarkable here in the three innings of work provided by Colorado’s relievers.

 

TEX 5 – LAA 2

• Brock Burke took the ball for the 7th and 8th, then handed it off to Jonathan Hernández for his first save of the season as the picture in the 9th inning gets even more fuzzy in Texas. Hernandez is working his way back from TJS and has been rehabbing in AAA for a while. The results weren’t that great, so it’s interesting to see him get a high leverage opportunity so quickly, but he had a lot of success back in 2020 for them, so maybe they’re searching for anyone who can get outs for them at the end of games. With Brett Martin’s struggles, I think it’s time to say that the Rangers are fully in a committee approach until someone steps up.
• Raisel Iglesias was called upon to try to keep the Angels alive in a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the top of the ninth. He gave up a three-run double, but wasn’t credited with the loss or any runs. It won’t hurt him much on the stat sheet, but it’s a continuation of a rough month for both Iglesias and the Angels as he blew one of only two saves the team gave him in the month, took two losses, and gave up eleven hits in 8.1 IPs.

 

MIN 2 – SDP 3

• Three scoreless innings on the stat sheet, but Emilio Pagán allowed a pair of key runs to score in the bottom of the 6th which the Twins could never recover from and which earned him his sixth blown save. Trevor Megill extended his streak of not allowing an earned run to 7.2 innings.
• While there is still some speculation about Taylor Rogers eventually reclaiming the closer role, the usage Sunday afternoon appears to anoint Luis Garcia as the closer of the moment in San Diego. Nabil Crismatt and Tim Hill worked the 7th and 8th respectively, each earning holds, while Garcia picked up his first save of the year with a 1-2-3 9th. While other names like Nick Martinez and Adrian Morejon may be brought up, Garcia is the guy to target for now.

 

CHC 0 – SF 4

• Rowan Wick got a bit of a maintenance inning here after not having worked since Tuesday, but this usage shows a bit why he’s fallen out of favor as the projected heir apparent for the closer’s role in the south side of Chicago if and when David Robertson gets traded. While Wick was used earlier in the season when Robertson was on the IL, Mychal Givens and Scott Effross have outperformed him throughout the season and would each provide a solid source of saves if one of them is able to grab the role for himself.
• Camilo Doval closed out the game, but didn’t earn a save due to the four-run lead. It was a bit of an up-and-down month for Doval which led to him only securing one save on one opportunity after recording four saves each of the previous three months. Still, he’s the number one option out of the pen although Gabe Kapler is a little more likely than most to go with someone other than his standard number one option.

 

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