About ten days ago it had seemed like Jake McGee was in trouble of losing his job as the Giants closer to Tyler Rogers after a disastrous outing in Coors where he allowed four earned runs. Well, Jake was never great in Colorado and he seems to still have a good grip on the role despite Gabe Kapler’s comments after that game. McGee had three saves this past week and could have had four if he weren’t off yesterday due to working back-to-back games earlier in the week. In those three saves, McGee allowed just two hits and one walk while striking out five. You ideally would like to see a WHIP of under 1.00 from your closer, but that’s really nitpicking. The Giants seem to be that team this year that wins all of their games by three runs or less, so as long as McGee is closing out games for them, he’s worthy of your consideration, as is the rubber-armed Tyler Rogers who leads all relievers in appearances.
Notes
- Will Smith was destroyed by the Blue Jays yesterday, allowing four earned runs over five hits while only getting one out. The Jays typically punish lefties (it’s why Atlanta pushed Drew Smyly back) but excuses aside, this is not great timing with Chris Martin returning from the injured list. The good news I guess from this one is that Smith didn’t walk anybody, so there’s that. His ERA now sits at 5.02 and while he shouldn’t be in danger of losing his job quite yet, the next week or two needs to go well for him to hold off Martin.
- After a bit of a shaky start to the season, Aaron Bummer has put together a pretty dominant May here, allowing just one hit over five innings while striking out eight and walking none. This is the Bummer we had envisioned heading into the year, and he looks to be on track and now hasn’t allowed a run in over three weeks. With other members of that vaunted White Sox bullpen struggling (Evan Marshall, Matt Foster, Codi Heuer to some degree) Bummer’s resurgence is a welcomed sight.
- Brad Hand and Taylor Rogers have both had their fair share of issues lately, with Rogers having an ERA of 9.64 in May while Hand’s sits at 10.80 with a WHIP of 2.70. It’s a small sample size, but also a reminder that these two are better off as higher-end depth relievers more so than being one of your top two relievers. Rogers has at least been able to miss bats this season, and his 35.1% CSW is currently 8th amongst all relievers which gives him a distinct edge on Hand, whose Whiff rate seems stuck at 25%.
- Ryne Stanek has likely been the savior of the Astros bullpen this season, as without him I don’t know if Ryan Pressly even has 3 saves at this point. Stanek has been the bridge that the team hoped was going to be Pedro Baez, and potentially Enoli Paredes, and like Bummer has gone more than three weeks without allowing a run. He walked two in his inning of work last night, which isn’t great, but overall the walks haven’t been an issue and WHIP still sits at 0.86. Stanek’s two secondary offerings, his slider, and splitter both currently have Whiff rates over 50%, so expect the strikeouts to keep piling up.
- I’m not sure there has been a more disappointing team than the Minnesota Twins this season, and that includes guys in their rotation (Kenta Maeda), and lineup too (Miguel Sano, Max Kepler), but it’s been their bullpen, a supposed strength, that’s been their real weakness. That starts with Tyler Duffey, who was one of the best non-closer relievers in all of baseball for the past two years. It could be related to his velocity drop in 2020, but he pitched well last year with the same velocity. I think it’s more likely related to his Chase Rate, in which last year he was at 34.7% and this year sits at just 22.2%. Hitters are also making more contact even when they do chase (up 7.9%) and his first-pitch strike rate is also down about 10%. All of this has led to a huge increase in his walk rate and decrease in Whiff rate (down over 13%) and for poor numbers for Duffey to begin the year. Some serious adjustments are needed for him to return to form.
- Four relievers outside of Jake McGee also had three SV+HLD’s this week, including Tyler Rogers, Daniel Hudson, Jake Diekman, and Tyler Chatwood. Rogers continues to do his thing, while it’s also nice to see Hudson’s usage go up this past week after being used sparingly. Diekman continues to work in a closer committee with Lou Trivino, but Diekman is the superior pitcher of the two and could take that role and run with it. I talked about Chatwood in yesterday’s The Hold Up.
NOTE: added Archie Bradley and removed Drew Pomeranz (lat)
| PITCHER | TIER | INJURY (EST. RETURN) |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Anderson | 1/2 | Elbow (July/August) |
| Trevor Rosenthal | 2/3 | Shoulder (July/August) |
| Drew Pomeranz | 2/3 | Lat (late May) |
| Seth Lugo | 3 | Elbow (late May) |
| Zack Britton | 3 | Elbow (early June) |
| Julian Merryweather | 3/4 | Oblique (late June) |
| Corey Knebel | 4/5 | Triceps (July) |
| Jordan Hicks | 4/5 | Elbow (July) |
| Kyle Crick | 5/6 | Tricep (late May) |
| Keone Kela | 5/6 | Forearm (June?) |
| David Phelps | 5/6 | Lat/Shoulder (June?) |
| J.B. Wendelken | 5/6 | Oblique (June?) |
(Photo by Kiyoshi Mio/Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter)
