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
- We had a full slate of 15 games on Tuesday and the Trade Deadline officially arrived just before the start of games with a slew of relievers being traded, albeit most of them being more depth pieces than high leverage ones.
- The most notable reliever trade on Deadline day was the Padres trading for Scott Barlow in exchange for Henry Williams. This gives the Padres another solid arm behind Josh Hader and should mean that Carlos Hernández takes the reins in Kansas City.
- The Yankees added two relievers in Spencer Howard from the Rangers and Keynan Middleton from the White Sox. With the bullpen already being a strength for the Yankees both figure to be depth arms for now, but Middleton did see some high-leverage spots for Chicago. New York sent cash to Texas and Juan Carela to the White Sox in exchange.
- The New York Baseball Mets sold off several of their big-name rental players kicking the can down the road to 2024 or 2025. They did add relievers Phil Bickford and Adam Kolarek. Of the two, Bickford could see somehigh-leverage Holds come his way after the departure of David Robertson over the weekend and Dominic Leone today, who they sent to the Los Angeles Angels for minor league infielder Jeremiah Jackson.
- Andrew Chafin found himself the odd man out of the saves pecking order after the Paul Sewald trade and now finds himself in Milwaukee after the two teams exchanged relievers. Peter Strzelecki goes to Arizona and should slot in somewhere in the middle innings.
- Philadelphia acquired Michael Lorenzen from the Tigers in exchange for minor-league infielder Hao-Yu Lee. Lorenzen will start his Phillies tenure in the rotation for at least the first two weeks but could end up a bulk reliever down the road.
- Colorado traded Brad Hand to Atlanta (his ninth team!) in exchange for minor league reliever Alec Barger. They also added Justin Bruihl from the Dodgers in exchange for cash considerations seemingly to patch the holes left by Hand and Pierce Johnson. With the recent activation of A.J. Minter and other reliever acquisitions, Hand should find himself most used in the middle innings.
Yesterday’s Performances
PHI 3 – MIA 1
HD: None
SV: Seranthony Domínguez (1)
- With Craig Kimbrel having pitched in back-to-back games, Seranthony Domínguez got the call in the ninth and locked down his 1st save of the season in quick, clean fashion allowing no baserunners and striking out one.
- Sandy Alcantara held up his end of the bargain, throwing 8 innings of shutout baseball and generally keeping the Phillies off the basepaths. Recent acquisition David Robertson did not, allowing 3 runs on two hits. Robertson, acquired from the Mets in trade over the weekend, walked leadoff man Kyle Schwarber before getting Alec Bohm to strikeout. But Bryce Harper drove a double to left to score the tying run and Nick Castellanos blasted his 15th HR of the season to give Philadelphia the lead and eventual win.
TEX 2 – CHW 0
HD: Josh Sborz (11), Aroldis Chapman (9)
SV: Will Smith (18)
- The Texas Rangers got a gem of a start from Andrew Heaney and then went straight to the bullpen blueprint of Josh Sborz to Aroldis Chapman to Will Smith and everything went just like they drew it up with 3 IP of superb relief.
- Welcome to the new Chicago White Sox bullpen experience where… [checks notes] Declan Cronin and Bryan Shaw were called upon in a close game to keep things from getting away. Cronin, who was called up from AAA on Friday, allowed a home run to Adolis García to make it a two-run game, while Shaw, called up from AAA on Saturday, threw an empty frame in the 8th.
HOU 2 – CLE 0
HD: None
SV: None
- Framber Valdez threw a No Hitter and I imagine the whole bullpen breathed a sigh of relief.
- The only runs of the game came against Gavin Williams in the 3rd. Xzavion Curry, Sam Hentges, and Enyel De Los Santos combined for 3 innings of zero earned runs.
TB 5 – NYY 2
HD: None
SV: Pete Fairbanks (14)
- The Rays jumped on Carlos Rodón early to take the lead and held it despite Colin Poche surrendering two runs on four hits in the 9th. With Poche in trouble, Tampa turned to Pete Fairbanks for the 1-out save, and he delivered in four pitches. Shawn Armstrong also pitched two clean innings in relief of Zach Eflin.
- The Yankees were playing catch up from the start, so they turned to their longer relief to keep things close. Ian Hamilton added to the damage, allowing a run in his two innings of work, while Albert Abreu and Nick Ramirez kept further runs off the board for the final three innings.
MIL 6 – WAS 4
HD: Abner Uribe (2), Joel Payamps (21)
SV: Devin Williams (27)
- Business as usual for the backend of the Brewers bullpen with Abner Uribe and Joel Payamps securing holds, despite Uribe allowing a run, and Devin Williams airbending his way to another save.
- Another game, another potpourri of middle innings eaters getting in work after Josiah Gray only made it 3.2 innings.
MIN 3 – STL 2
HD: Emilio Pagán (3), Griffin Jax (15)
SV: Jhoan Duran (18)
- Jhoan Duran was able to lock down his 18th save of the season despite allowing a home run to Tyler O’Neill. He’s allowed runs in back-to-back appearances but hadn’t allowed any runs in his previous 5 appearances, so there isn’t really anything to worry about here. Emilio Pagán and Griffin Jax did their job bridging the way from Pablo López to Duran with a scoreless inning apiece to notch holds for both.
- The Cardinals were another team who saw several relievers move at the deadline, so in a close game they found themselves turning to recently recalled John King in the 8th and holdover Drew VerHagen for the 9th. Neither allowed a run to keep the game close but inevitably out of reach.
BAL 13 – TOR 3
HD: None
SV: None
- Hyun Jin Ryu returned to action for the Blue Jays after Tommy John surgery and gave them 5 innings of 4 run ball. After Ryu allowed a tiebreaking home run from Gunnar Henderson to lead off the 6th inning, Toronto turned to their bullpen. Trevor Richards finished off the 6th inning with 2 Ks and no runs, but then the wheels fell off the bullpen cart. Génesis Cabrera allowed 3 runs in the 7th, Nate Pearson waved in 4 runs in the 8th, and then, despite not being a save situation, recently acquired pro tempore closer Jordan Hicks came in for the 9th to get some work and allowed 2 runs.
- Cionel Pérez and Joey Krehbiel locked things down on the Baltimore side and just let Toronto do all the imploding.
KC 7 – NYM 6 (10)
HD: Austin Cox (2)
SV: None
- Newly christened closer Carlos Hernández came into a tie game in the 10th and promptly allowed a 2-run shot to Francisco Alvarez, but ended up backing into a Win after KC walked it off in the bottom of the inning. Austin Cox got his second hold of the season after a couple of bullpen buddies ahead of him were traded.
- After trading David Robertson, it was unclear if Adam Ottavino or Brooks Raley would get the bulk of the saves going forward. Raley had gotten the first two opportunities and had the chance for his 3rd in the 10th inning here, but only managed one out before being pulled and eventually settling for a Loss and blown save after Grant Hartwig and Josh Walker both allowed inherited runs to score. Ottavino had also joined in on the blown save club earlier, allowing a run in the 8th.
CHC 20 – CIN 9
HD: None
SV: None
- Chicago quickly got out to a
2 touchdown lead, but missed the extra point13 run lead, so they turned to Hayden Wesneski to grab 2 innings in relief. At some point, Wesneski may be stretched out enough to return to the rotation, but for now, he’s getting his innings in long relief and follower duty. - When your starting pitcher allows 13 earned runs, does it really matter if your bullpen allows 7 more?
The best of the rest…
- Joe Jiménez found himself with a sweet little one out Hold, coming in to wrap up the 7th after Spencer Strider plunked Zach Neto. Atlanta would go on to score 3 in the bottom of the 7th to extend their lead and A.J. Minter came in for his 2nd straight day of work since returning from the IL and Raisel Iglesias closed out a non-save 9th.
- After not getting dealt at the deadline, David Bednar responded with a clean 2-strikeout inning for his 22nd save.
- San Francisco attempted to have Ryan Walker complete the 3-inning save to close out the win but ended up turning to Sean Manaea for 2 outs at the end for his first save. Doval and the Rogers twins had pitched a lot in the past 3 games, so this was just an opportunity to give them some rest.
- Chris Martin and Josh Winckowski held things down and paved the way for Kenley Jansen to secure his 24th save.
Bullpen Depth Charts
The Hold Up: Ranking the Top 100 Relievers for Holds Every Thursday
Closing Time: Ranking the Top 30 Closers
Top 100 Relievers for Save+Hold Leagues
Photos by Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Doug Carlin (@Bdougals on Twitter)