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
- The Padres and Angels had a rare Sunday off and did not use any relievers.
- Eight teams have the day off Monday and will have fresh bullpens going into Tuesday. They are: CLE, KC, CWS, OAK, NYM, MIA, PIT, CHC.
- In terms of win vulture opportunities, Tampa Bay is starting to get more cautious with Luis Patiño’s innings and I could see them pulling him early. I wouldn’t be surprised if they piggybacked another starter onto him like Drew Rasmussen, but they haven’t announced plans to do that yet, so I’ll say maybe Adam Conley even though he logged 28 pitches on Saturday? I don’t have much confidence in that one, though.
Transaction and Injury Notes
- Richard Lovelady was placed on the 10-day IL and was replaced on the Royals roster by Tyler Zuber.
- Paul Fry was demoted to AAA-Norfolk. A corresponding move to replace him on the Orioles roster has yet to be announced.
- The Yankees sent Albert Abreu to AAA-Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
Yesterday’s Performances
- Alex Reyes got burned by the thing he had been miraculously avoiding for his whole career: the home run. He gave up a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to take his fourth blown save and seventh loss of the year. He’s blown three out of his last five save opportunities and sports a 7.84 ERA in August in 10.1 IP. Reyes has, to this point in his career, been elite at avoiding the long ball. However, with his high whip driven by an atrocious walk rate, the home runs he does give up are more likely to be with men on base making him a very ‘boom or bust’ reliever.
- Chris Stratton picked up his fifth win of the season after working a scoreless ninth and giving the offense an opportunity to walk it off in the ninth. Stratton’s results and peripherals aren’t as impressive as teammate David Bednar’s, but it appears they’re still both going to get chances at the end of games.
- JT Chargois earned his fifth win in relief after starter Chris Archer was unable to complete five innings. The offense made it easy on the bullpen and kept adding to the lead any time the Orioles added some runs. Chargois has four wins and a save in 12 appearances since joining the Rays.
- Paul Fry started out the season so strongly, but the wheels absolutely came off for him in August. In 11 appearances, he allowed 17 earned runs and 16 walks compared to just four strikeouts. This translates to a 21.86 ERA and 3.86 WHIP in seven innings. Even the Orioles couldn’t stand for this and Fry was demoted after the game.
- Nothing interesting happening in Arizona’s pen as usual.
- Ian Kennedy notched his 21st save of the year and fifth with the Phillies by locking down the ninth inning on nine pitches. Even though he was successful in this one, Kennedy has done little to fix the team’s bullpen woes. The team’s bullpen ERA through July 31st was 4.54 and sits at 4.78 since July 31st.
- Austin Voth posted a third straight scoreless inning since returning from the IL. Besides a short stretch at the end of July where he was dealing with an injury, Voth has been a solid bullpen piece for the Nationals.
- The Mets offense put enough distance with Washington to prevent them from needing to use their top bullpen arms. In case you missed it, the Mets picked up Heath Hembree off waivers from the Reds. Despite the poor results, Hembree has shown some flashes this year and now has three scoreless innings in New York.
- With Jordan Romano unavailable after working two innings on Saturday, Tim Mayza logged his first save of the season. No controversy here. Romano should continue to be extremely valuable since the Blue Jays are apparently a low-scoring, pitching-centered team now.
- Detroit’s bullpen delivered five scoreless innings to keep the team in it, but the offense was unable to deliver. José Cisnero, who’s been solid all year, has been feeling it in August with a 1.38 ERA in 13 innings.
- The Reds needed only three outs from their bullpen and Lucas Sims put up a scoreless inning.
- Dylan Floro earned his seventh save of the season while Anthony Bender logged his eighth hold. It wasn’t a completely clean save for Floro as he gave up a run and a couple of baserunners, but he was able to lock things down when it mattered. Floro is five for six in save opportunities since taking over in Miami.
- With starter Anthony DeSclafani dealing with an ankle injury, the Giants piggybacked Sammy Long to give their bullpen a break. The game got out of hand and the only other Giant to throw a pitch was outfielder Austin Slater.
- Tyler Matzek was able to sneak in his 22nd hold before the game got out of hand. We knew this was going to happen already, but Touki Toussaint worked in relief here which confirms that he’s left the Braves rotation with the return of Ian Anderson.
- More struggles for Rowan Wick and his shot at the closer’s role in Chicago has all but completely passed him by with Codi Heuer’s performance. Manuel Rodríguez has two wins and a save in 12 solid appearances in August and may soon rise to the “next in line” spot.
- A very clean, very quiet maintenance inning for Liam Hendriks who hadn’t pitched since needing 39 pitches to record the final five outs of the game on Tuesday. The White Sox have a day off Monday and Hendriks will be a full go for Tuesday.
- Milwaukee used their deadly 7-8-9 combo of Brad Boxberger, Devin Williams, and Josh Hader to close out the game on Sunday. Unfortunately, the lead sat at four runs throughout and no saves or holds were distributed. The trio has combined to allow just one earned run in 33.1 IP in August (0.27 ERA) with 54 strikeouts.
- Ian Gibaut had a nice Twins debut and kept the Brewers at bay for three scoreless innings. Despite these results, the repertoire doesn’t really jump out and he’s unlikely to be anything more than a long reliever.
- Brooks Raley has been up and down all year, but he could be righting the ship at the right time to earn some holds for Houston down the stretch. There’s not much else in terms of good news to take from this blowout.
- Top reliever prospect Demarcus Evans has been bouncing up and down from AAA seemingly throughout the entire year. He’s putting together a solid stretch (1.88 ERA in his last 13 appearances), but that comes with eight walks.
- Tyler Zuber was recalled from AAA and took a loss in his first game back giving up the game-winning homer in the bottom of the seventh. Josh Staumont worked a clean eighth to keep the deficit at one, but the offense couldn’t come through.
- Drew Steckenrider was given the ninth-inning duties for Seattle in this one and earned his seventh save of the season. Paul Sewald was deployed in the eighth and had to work himself out of trouble after allowing three base hits. Expect Steckenrider and Sewald to continue to be deployed in both the eighth and ninth innings depending on matchups.
- Boston’s late inning woes continued as Austin Davis allowed three runs in the bottom of the eighth to give Cleveland a two-run lead they wouldn’t relinquish. I would love to see the Red Sox use Garrett Whitlock as a multi-inning closer a la Josh Hader 2018, but that’s unfortunately unlikely to happen.
- Bryan Shaw earned his sixth win in relief while Emmanuel Clase locked down his 19th save. With James Karinchak down in AAA working on himself, this job is Clase’s and Clase’s alone for the first time in his career. That’s four days of work out of five for Clase, though, so they may choose to give him Tuesday off as well after their off day Monday.
- In a non-save situation, Carlos Estévez worked the ninth inning for Colorado. His scoreless innings streak now sits at 12, but he’s unlikely to take over for Daniel Bard without Bard having some major issues.
- It’s rare that you see a position player pitch in a game that was so close, but Justin Turner worked the ninth for the beleaguered Dodgers. The bullpen was quite taxed and they were forced to use Kenley Jansen for the second straight night. He’s potentially unavailable on Monday.
- Chad Green was tagged with his sixth loss of the year after allowing a two-run wall scraper in the bottom of the eighth. He had been having a solid month up to that point, but he and teammate Jonathan Loaisiga are among the most heavily used relievers in the league, so it will be interesting to see how they hold up in the final few weeks of the season.
- Oakland announced after their game on Saturday that Lou Trivino would be “taking a break” from the ninth inning and we didn’t have to wait long to see who was next in line. Andrew Chafin notched his second save of the year and delivered a clean ninth inning with two strikeouts. Jake Diekman and Sergio Romo are both candidates to get save opportunities if Oakland goes with the committee approach, but Chafin has the best upside and the best chance of holding onto the role.
Bullpen Depth Charts