July 31, 2023
Toronto Blue Jays – The Blue Jays bolstered their bullpen on Sunday picking up Jordan Hicks from the St. Louis Cardinals. Hicks will take his 100+ MPH fastball north of the border and is likely to be the first choice for Toronto as long as Jordan Romano is out. We do think Romano will return to the closers spot when he is off the IL, so this move is probably a hit to Hicks’ long term value, but he may work his way into a committee if he can string together some solid performances early.
Updated hierarchy: Hicks | Swanson | Garcia.
*=closer-by-committee
St. Louis Cardinals — The Cardinals have begun the firesale, moving closer Jordan Hicks to Toronto and also sending Chris Stratton to the Texas Rangers. This leaves Giovanny Gallegos and JoJo Romero as the top options for the Cardinals right now. Gallegos pitched 2 scoreless innings yesterday, and Romero pitched the 9th for his first career save. Gallegos certainly has more experience, but Romero has been excellent for the past couple weeks, and given that he got the first save, we will slot him into the top spot in a committee for now. As we noted in our trade deadline preview, keep an eye on Ryan Helsley, who has begun throwing off a mound, and may walk into a cleared out bullpen in early August.
Updated hierarchy: *Gallegos | Romero | Pallante.
* = closer-by-committee
July 31, 2023
New York Mets – The second save after the David Robertson trade went also to Brooks Raley, who pitched a clean 9th for his 3rd save on the year. Adam Ottavino had gotten the last 2 outs of the 8th right ahead of him. Two in a row is enough to get the leader of the committee tag, but Ottavino is riding a 6 game scoreless streak right now, so he may get the next opportunity.
Updated hierarchy: *Raley | Ottavino | Smith.
* = closer-by-committee
Kansas City Royals – Our pick for the vulture save last night, Dylan Coleman, got the 8th inning, leaving the vulture save to Carlos Hernandez. Hernandez converted for his first career save. Hernandez has proven himself as a valuable handcuff for Scott Barlow, but with tomorrow’s deadline looming he may be a closer sooner rather than later.
Hierarchy remains: Barlow | Hernandez | Clarke.
Vulture Save Watch:
- Jose Soriano (LAA) — Carlos Estevez and Matt Moore both had long outings yesterday and may get the night off.
- Nick Martinez (SD) – Josh Hader has thrown 49 pitches over the past 2 days.
- Taylor Rogers (SF) — Both Camilo Doval and Tyler Rogers had long outings yesterday and have now pitched back to back.
For Tuesday
- Kirby Yates/Joe Jimenez (ATL) — Today would be back to back and 3 of 4 for the entire Atlanta hierarchy.
- Gregory Soto/Seranthony Dominguez (PHI) — The same is true for Philadelphia.
