After a terrible start to his Giants career, Taylor Rogers has been one of the best relievers in baseball over the past two months, with some incredible numbers over his past 21.2 IP. Rogers 31.3% K-BB, 38.1% CSW rates as well as his 2.60 xFIP, 2.19 SIERA during that span all rank amongst the top 10 of all relievers, as does his 0.42 ERA and 0.69 WHIP. So why hasn’t he moved up the list more? Well he only has two holds since April 1st, as manager Gabe Kapler still prefers Scott Alexander and Rogers brother Tyler Rogers in set up roles. However, with Alexander (and John Brebbia) heading to the IL recently, perhaps we will finally see Taylor in a similar role to his brother Tyler.
Notes
- Jason Foley has been a rock steady set up option for the Tigers this season, even filling in for Alex Lange from time to time and could wind up in the closer role if Lange’s recent struggles continue. Despite his 6.9% SwStr rate, which may be the lowest I’ve ever seen from a high leverage reliever, Foley does have an impressive 5.52 PLV, I’d imagine due to his sinker and extreme ground ball splits.
- It’s hard to project how Andrew Nardi role the rest of the season as the Marlins do have four really good left handed relievers in their bullpen, but Nardi has been just too good to ignore and should be in the top 60-70 relievers when it comes to SV+HLD leagues. Since the start of May, Nardi has a 30.6% K-BB rate and 2.19 xFIP over 19.1 IP while not allowing any earned runs.
- Yennier Cano isn’t the only Oriole reliever to seemingly come from nowhere and have value in holds leagues as Danny Coulombe is now up to 12 holds on the season. Over his last 12 IP, Coulombe has a 30.6% K rate and six holds while allowing just two earned runs. His 11.2% Hard Contact rate currently ranks 2nd, while he also grades out well by PLV standards (5.36).
- After a rough start to the season, Julian Merryweather has quietly been a dominant reliever for two+ months now, having 36.1% K and 17% SwStr rates as well as a 2.91 SIERA and impressive 126 Stuff+ rating over his last 26.2 IP. He only has three holds over this span, but there could be more coming as the team has trusted him with more high leverage work as of late.
- We all knew that Robert Stephenson’s move to the Rays would lead to positive results for him, and so far that seems to be holding up. Stephenson is throwing his slider a bit harder now with the Rays and it’s led to a 20.6% SwStr and 34.6% K rates in his first 6.2 IP with his new team. He also already has two holds, and could work his way into some more as that bullpen is not super reliable outside of a few options.
- After I hyped up Reynaldo López last week of course he goes out and allows four earned runs over his past 1.2 innings of work. This White Sox bullpen is super talented and has a chance to be one of the best in the game, but the team in general just feels almost cursed with how they’ve underperformed over the past few seasons, so maybe it’s best to stay away from any relievers here?
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