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Go right ahead, present your results. This thread needs a feel good story, after the path I’ve led it down.
I’m hanging my hat on most recent results, and viewing the current pen as “as is”.
How about Libby, in the last month.
10 games, strictly out of the bullpen. ERA of 1.54 and WHIP of 0.771.Basically, the hopes for a better bullpen in 2024 are just that…hopes. It could happen, but I wouldn’t place a wager on it. Health will play a big part, but Gallegos could fall off just as easily as Helsley getting healthy or another top option stepping forward occurs.
Bullpens are always a bit of a hope and a prayer. But getting Kittredge into the mix definitely helps alleviate some concerns. That’s 3 proven guys at the back end plus a semi-proven guy in Romero. Plus ground ball machine Andre Pallante for semi high leverage. Yes, all the others are completely unproven, but at least there’s a lot of them and many of them appear to have good stuff to support a reasonable level of confidence that they might be good. I’m far more worried about the rotation than the pen. But the two do impact one another.
I really don’t see many good stats for the 2023 bullpen, 28 blown saves. I think there are many additions by subtractions from 2023 to 2024. I am concerned about Gallegos though. He has regressed in many areas in the last 2 years.
Mo could add a late inning reliever as the season progresses, but do we get to buyer status?
Leads correlate real well with wins 😉
Bullpen possibles for 2024:
Helsley, Gallegos, Kittredge, Romero, Pallante
One of Thompson or Liberatore
Drew Rom
Conner Thomas
Wilking Rodriguez
Nick Robertson
Ryan Fernandez
Packy Naughton
John King
James Naile
Leonardo Taveras
Guillerme Zuniga
Ryan Loutos
Matt Svanson
Andre Granillo
Kyle Leahy
Logan SawyerPlus potentially any other Memphis or Springfield starter. Unproven? Absolutely. But a lot of guys with high upside.
Fernandez would have to have a terrible spring or be injured to not make the team, He figures to be the last bullpener due to his Rule 5 status. But he has a high upside arm.
If all else is equal I am going to assume John King will be in the pen most of the year. He does have options remaining but he will be making more than the league minimum so they would probably prefer not to pay him that much to play for Memphis. They did it with DeJong and Hudson but that certainly isn’t the preference.
Perhaps Thompson is our 6th starter at Memphis, and Liberatore is in the STL pen. Thompson may be our 5th starter given Matz health.
Ironically, without a rotation injury, if either Libby or Thompson pitch lights out in spring, that player will go to the bullpen, and the loser stays a starter.
A world where both pitch optimally and join Romero becomes a formidable left-side to the pen. Everyone loved the version of King we saw last year, but I loved Libby out of the pen at the end and I loved the version of Thompson at the end of 2022 throwing 100 mph.Does anyone expect anything out of Naughten, Rodriguez, or Zuninga ever again? I thought all three had surgeries.
In spite of his age, IMO, Wilking Rodriguez will get a chance at some point next season if he can still throw his 100MPH fastball and his nasty cutter.
I don’t know what Packy’s role would potentially be, with all the new guys.
Zuniga and Wilking are 100 mph guys who can miss bats. If they can get through ST still healthy, there is nohing keeping them from snagging a couple spots out in the pen. Some of the names we are looking at out there are not too compelling. I wouldn’t bet on either of them remaining healthy for long.
I thought Packy had Tommy John late May meaning he will be rehabbed around Thanksgiving. Didn’t Rodriguez have shoulder surgery meaning he will be ready when old guys come back from shoulder surgery? Didn’t Zugniga hurt his shoulder then come back and later shut himself down?
I think most of these guys, Naughton, Rodriguez, Zuniga have limited chance to be added to the 40 man roster,
Wasn’t that long ago Mo said they intended to add two relievers to the pen.
Then they traded for a guy who had a plus season 3 yrs ago, and 30-ish innings since.
Now we’re done. Honestly, it looks like Bill capped the payroll before Mo got done.
An important question is probably who will step up – Fernandez, Robertson, or O’Brien? And if Rom, Robberse, or Kloffenstein will be converted to reliever.
Plenty of mlb relievers available CFICT.
Since payroll is capped, this site will be prospect hugging the remainder of the offseason, to justify Bills budget. Pass. Better off watching the snow fall 🙂
For the last 50 years, the trend in MLB is for starting pitchers to pitch fewer and fewer innings. A guy at yahoo sports says “This year, with the limit in place, it went down; in 2023, starters averaged 5.1 innings per start.”
https://sports.yahoo.com/world-series-2023-rob-manfred-says-mlb-might-look-to-further-limit-the-number-of-pitchers-teams-can-carry-021028748.html#:~:text=This%20year%2C%20with%20the%20limit,they%20see%20a%20particular%20batter.Teams wanting to win pretty much need four quality relievers. This is what was behind the 10 start in a row loss in games started by Jordan Montgomery in the first half of last season. He actually pitched okay in many of those games, but not all that deep. And when you have only two or three effective relievers, four innings of relief in one game is a lot of ground to cover, and we didn’t cover it all to often.
jj-cf-stl
Then they traded for a guy who had a plus season 3 yrs ago, and 30-ish innings since.
Having TJ surgery mid-year will do that.
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