Chris Hatcher emerging as frontrunner for Dodgers’ closer gig

March 19, 2015

Los Angeles Dodgers – A new name has emerged in the most unsettled bullpen in the big leagues. Chris Hatcher, a former catcher (just like Kenley Jansen!) has been turning heads in camp, and some members of the media have anointed him the frontrunner for the closer job. Don Mattingly has remained quiet about bullpen roles, and we still think Joel Peralta is a very strong possibility (and his most recent outing was a good one), but beat writers tend to know best, so we’ll move him to the top of the committee for now. Another candidate to watch is former Blue Jays closer Sergio Santos. Santos wasn’t even considered a lock to make the team as recently as a few weeks ago, but a strong spring has put him in the conversation. Meanwhile, Brandon League is taking some time off due to shoulder soreness.

Updated hierarchy: *Hatcher | Peralta | Santos.
*closer-by-committee

Toronto Blue Jays – Thanks to an injury to Marcus Stroman, signs are pointing to a spot in the rotation for promising youngster Aaron Sanchez. That basically clears Brett Cecil’s path to the Opening Day closer gig.

Updated hierarchy: Cecil | Loup | Delabar.

New York Yankees – Though Joe Girardi said the closer role would be determined by a spring training competition between Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller, most of the speculation was that Betances would be the guy. (Which is why we ranked him so highly on our preseason closer rankings.) We still don’t have a definitive answer, but nothing drastic has changed; Betances is still the frontrunner and likely closer for the Bombers.

Hierarchy remains: Betances | Miller | Carpenter.

Oakland A’s – Tyler Clippard has let his once-surefire gig as interim closer slip a bit, as a few tough preseason outings have brought Ryan Cook — and Eric O’Flaherty and Dan Otero — into the conversation. Sean Doolittle will start his throwing program soon, so this could just be a short-term problem for Oakland, and to be clear, we still think Clippard is the best healthy reliever to own. But the situation warrants watching in the coming weeks.

Hierarchy remains: Clippard | Cook | O’Flaherty.

Tampa Bay Rays – In the race to close games in Tampa’s sans-McGee bullpen, Grant Balfour had a few distinct advantages. He has the most experience in the role, he had expressed an interest in it, and most importantly, Kevin Cash had mentioned him as a possibility. But Balfour has missed the last few weeks of spring training following the death of his father, while Brad Boxberger has come out of the gate with three scoreless innings. With his strong start, we think Boxberger has pulled even with Balfour, and suspect the Opening Day closer will be largely determined by which player looks better over the next couple weeks.

Hierarchy remains: Balfour | Boxberger | Jepsen.

Neftali Feliz will close in Texas

July 24, 2014

Texas Rangers — 26-year-old Neftali Feliz, an All-Star closer in 2010, will get the first shot at the ninth with Joakim Soria headed to Detroit. “We’ll give him a shot,” Ron Washington said. “He is the only one with experience.” Shawn Tolleson and Neal Cotts will back him up.

Updated hierarchy: Feliz | Tolleson | Cotts.

Detroit Tigers — The Tigers have acquired Joakim Soria from the Texas Rangers. Joe Nathan will hang onto his job for now, but his Hot Seat is glowing white with his former set-up guy looming.

Updated hierarchy: Nathan | Soria | Chamberlain.

Houston Astros — Although he admits that he’s been burned before and remains “very guarded,” Houston GM Jeff Luhnow still hopes Jesse Crain and Matt Albers will return to give the Astros a few innings this year in exchange for their combined $5.5 million in salary. Finding the saddest part of that sentence is left as an exercise for the reader. In far less depressing news, Josh Fields has struck out 18 men and allowed only three baserunners in 9.1 innings since his return from the DL. He has the edge over Tony Sipp.

Updated hierarchy: Qualls | Fields | Sipp.

Tampa Bay Rays — Brad Boxberger to Jake McGee: two perfect innings with five strikeouts. A fella could get used to this. And get well soon, Joel Peralta; hope you don’t have that nasty chikungunya virus.

Hierarchy remains: McGee | Balfour | Boxberger.

Chicago White Sox — Chicago’s bullpen may soon become crowded if Nate Jones and Matt Lindstrom can return as planned early next month. Jones has been throwing on flat ground for some time now. Lindstrom will pitch batting practice this weekend, then start a minor league rehab assignment if all goes well.

Hierarchy remains: Putnam | Petricka | Belisario.

Toronto Blue Jays — First, Sergio Santos’s stuff went south; now he will, to AAA Buffalo, after clearing waivers.

Hierarchy remains: Janssen | McGowan | Loup.

VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. Sergio Romo, San Francisco Giants — Santiago Casilla has pitched in three straight games.
2. Ken Giles/Antonio Bastardo, Philadelphia Phillies — With Jonathan Papelbon likely unavailable after throwing 55 pitches in the last two days, Ryne Sandberg might have to choose between preparing his closer of the future or showcasing a promising trade chip.
3. Luke Gregerson, Oakland Athletics — Sean Doolittle has pitched in three of four games, including last night, and the A’s play a day game on Thursday.

Joe Maddon rewards the chivalrous Grant Balfour

July 2, 2014

Tampa Bay Rays — Oh, Joe Maddon. No one was surprised to see him call on Jake McGee to face the Yankees’ 2-3-4 hitters in a one-run eighth. A few people were surprised when he summoned Grant Balfour to nail down the save with the same score in the ninth. But everyone was surprised when Maddon revealed his reasoning in a postgame statement and tweet: he was rewarding Balfour for the good “karma” he sensed as the embattled reliever walked his octogenarian Aussie grandmother through the lobby of the team hotel. Some Rays fans called the move brave, but honestly, with the way the Yankees have been hitting lately, Granny B could have taken the mound herself.

Hierarchy remains: McGee | Balfour | Peralta.

Atlanta Braves — After two successful rehab outings for AAA Gwinnett, an optimistic David Carpenter will be activated from the disabled list on Wednesday. His return should displace Shae Simmons and Luis Avilan.

Updated hierarchy: Kimbrel | Walden | Carpenter.

Toronto Blue Jays — While Sergio Santos has been overlooked in high-leverage spots, Aaron Loup has resurfaced as a top option, albeit one who hit the only batter he faced in the eighth on Tuesday. This is probably all academic, as Brett Cecil has only one more rehab outing planned for Buffalo before he joins the Jays on Thursday in Oakland. In his first Bisons appearance on Monday, Cecil gave up the tying home run to Syracuse in the eighth, and came off as a little insensitive to his temporary teammates. Hope he bought dinner at Dinosaur.

Updated hierarchy: Janssen | McGowan | Loup.

Los Angeles Angels — Joe Smith earned two saves in one day — the first coming in a five-run game he entered with the bases loaded and nobody out — on a mere 13 pitches. No vulture save watch for this guy!

Hierarchy remains: Smith | Grilli | Jepsen.

VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. Edward Mujica, Boston Red Sox — Koji Uehara threw 20 pitches and blew the save on Tuesday, his third day of work in the last four.
2. Jordan Walden/David Carpenter, Atlanta Braves — Craig Kimbrel has pitched in four of five. If the Braves are ready to toss Carpenter back into the fire right away, he could get the vulture save call.
3. Neil Ramirez/Pedro Strop, Chicago Cubs — Hector Rondon has pitched in three of the last four games; perhaps tomorrow we will learn if Pedro Strop has truly surpassed Neil Ramirez in the Cubs pen.

Ernesto Frieri, Jason Grilli on verge of losing their jobs

June 20, 2014

Pittsburgh Pirates – Jason Grilli blew his fourth save of the season on Thursday. Four blown saves — and an accompanying 4.34 ERA — isn’t exactly horrendous, but it’s obviously not what you want to see out of your closer, especially when your bullpen has been stellar otherwise. So after the game, Clint Hurdle wasn’t exactly giving Grilli a ringing endorsement, and Mark Melancon might be on the verge of a promotion.

Hierarchy remains: Grilli | Melancon | Watson.
Jason Grilli to Hot Seat.

Detroit Tigers – Before Thursday’s game, Joe Nathan adjusted his arm slot, and proceeded to strike out all three hitters he faced. Might that be all it takes for the once-dominant closer to return to his old self?

Hierarchy remains: Nathan | Chamberlain | Alburquerque.

Los Angeles Angels – A baffling 10th inning in Cleveland saw the Angels take a 2-run lead and then summon youngster Cam Bedrosian while Ernesto Frieri stood idle in the bullpen. Bedrosian struggled and allowed three base runners (jeez, who would’ve expected a guy with a 10.13 ERA to struggle?!?!), before Mike Scioscia finally went to his closer, but Frieri would only be able to retire David Murphy before allowing a walk off grand slam to Nick Swisher. We’ve said previously that Scioscia’s recent decision to limit Frieri’s save chances seemed unnecessarily harsh, and Thursday’s usage just seemed cruel — like he wanted the righty to fail. But either way, after the game, Frieri was pissed and Scioscia offered no real explanation for using Bedrosian (whose ERA is now 14.29, by the way). Frieri is still probably the best Angel reliever to own, but with the way he’s been treated, we wouldn’t be surprised if Joe Smith got the next save chance.

Hierarchy remains: Frieri | Smith | Jepsen.

Toronto Blue Jays – We might now have an explanation for why Brett Cecil went from one of the best relievers in baseball over the first month into a kinda-crappy situational lefty in recent weeks: he’s been trying to pitch through a groin injury. That effort is now over, as Cecil was placed on the DL on Thursday. Look for Sergio Santos — just back from his own DL stint — and Dustin McGowan to get save chances on nights when Casey Janssen is unavailable.

Updated hierarchy: Janssen | McGowan | Santos.

Tampa Bay Rays – The best thing Grant Balfour has going for him is a manager hellbent on getting him back to the 9th inning.  But he’s also put together a modest line since being demoted two weeks ago (4.2 IPs, 1 ER, 3 H, 5 Ks, and 1 BB), and for a guy who spent much of the year with a 6+ ERA and more walks than strikeouts, this constitutes tremendous progress.  Last night, he got the 9th inning in a 5-run game (pitching behind Joel Peralta, who got the 8th), and struck out the side.

Updated hierarchy: McGee | Balfour | Peralta.

Oakland Athletics – Sean Doolittle, he of the most ridiculous K/BB ratio since 1900, got the night off Thursday after pitching in two games in a row. Righty Dan Otero picked up the save in his place.

Updated hierarchy: Doolittle | Gregerson | Otero.

New York Yankees – With most of New York’s top relievers needing a night off, Adam Warren picked up a 2-out save on Thursday.

Hierarchy remains: Robertson | Betances | Warren.

VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. Joe Smith, Los Angeles Angels – This is a committee now; see above.

Chris Perez blows save, Blue Jays go with committee

May 4, 2014

Los Angeles Dodgers – The Dodgers gave Kenley Jansen the night off last night and went with Chris Perez in the 9th inning.  Perez blew the save by walking in the game tying run.  Jansen is tied for the league lead in appearances this season, and he hasn’t been his usual dominant self, giving up 25 base runners in 15.1 innings.  The Dodgers will probably try to monitor Jansen’s usage moving forward so Chris Perez could continue to see save opportunities when Jansen is rested.

Hierarchy change remains: Jansen | Perez | Wilson.

Toronto Blue Jays – Manager John Gibbons has officially removed Sergio Santos from the closer’s role and has announced that they will go with a committee until Janssen is back.  Gibbons mentioned Brett Cecil and Aaron Loup as the main guys in the committee.  We like Cecil better because of his strikeout potential.  On another note, Casey Janssen could begin a rehab assignment on Monday.

Hierarchy change: Cecil | Loup | Delabar. 

Chicago White Sox – Nate Jones is going to have surgery on his lower back.  The White Sox have said this will not end his season, but this is not good news for those holding out hope that Jones would come back and take over as closer.  Hierarchy remains: Lindstrom | Belisario | Webb.

VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. J.J. Putz, Arizona Diamondbacks – Addison Reed has pitched in two straight and four of the last five.
2. Pedro Strop, Chicago Cubs – Hector Rondon has recorded save in the past two days and pitched in three of the last four.
3. A.J. Ramos, Miami Marlins – Steve Cishek has appeared in three straight games
4. Santiago Casilla, San Francisco Giants – Sergio Romo has thrown 37 pitches over the past two games and pitched in three of the past four games.
5. Jim Johnson, Oakland A’s – We think Jim Johnson gets the next save chance in Oakland, and the job should be his again if he converts it.
6. Aaron Loup, Toronto Blue Jays – The Blue Jays are going with a committee and Brett Cecil is unavailable tonight so Loup will get the call if there is a save opportunity
7. Anthony Bass, Houston Astros – It looks like Qualls and Bass will be the main guys for a little while.