Constructing bullpens is a confounding task. General managers plan, and the baseball gods laugh.
Still, Toronto Blue Jays partisans can’t really be blamed for casting an anxious eye towards the relief corps in the last days before pitchers and catchers converge to stretch and squat.
Before last season, the pen seemed like a strength, with any number of big-armed All-Stars taking the ball in the late innings, and a crafty closer who curiously succeeded by pounding the zone with strikes that rarely clocked over 90 mph. Heading into last season, it was said on the chat shows that this was the least of anyone’s worries. And yet, here we are, profoundly worried just 12 months later.
It’s fair to say that this is not a particularly novel problem. You’d be hard-pressed to find an article or post or tweet about the value of relief pitchers over the past three years without seeing the term “fungible” tossed around. It seems as though many fans – if not most – can rationally understand the limitations on the value of relievers.
The mind is willing, but the gut nervously empties itself, fretting on social media over the lack of big name, Capital C Closers on the roster. In spite of the mounting evidence of the pointlessness of teams like the Philadelphia Phillies paying eight figures to a closer, fans of the team with the longest playoff drought in the sport wonder why their team isn’t lining up to get some of that sweet Jonathan Papelbon action.
Maybe it’s being overly glib – who, moi? Glib? – to say that bullpens are made up of a series of diminished and failed prospects. Of “almost were” and “also ran.” Of beasts so wild and untamed, they need to be confined within chain-link enclosures.
But you can be successful with a collection of misfits handling the downstream innings.
Take the Seattle Mariners. Granted, they acquired the big name closer in Fernando Rodney before last season, but they built the best bullpen in the game (according to ERA and xFIP) on the performances of unheralded hurlers such as Yoervis Medina, Danny Farquhar, Charlie Furbush and Dominic Leone. You probably don’t have their bobbleheads, but they provided solid – if somewhat lucky – innings for the Mariners last season and kept them in the Wild Card hunt until the last day of the season while finishing four lousy wins ahead of the Blue Jays.
If it’s possible to imagine that unsung and overlooked pitchers can be the backbone of the mid-to-late inning pitching corps, then maybe some of the anonymous arms that have made their way onto the Jays’ roster or spring invite list could ably support Brett Cecil, Aaron Loup, and Marco Estrada in that role this year.
Here are a few of the options that intrigue me:
Gregory Infante: A 27 year-old righty who quietly racked up a 1.94 ERA in 2014 between New Hampshire and Buffalo, Infante previously had a cup of coffee with the White Sox in 2010. He is a big-armed minor-league closer who has touched 100 mph according to Baseball America. His walk rate last year dropped to 3.5 per nine innings, his best showing since rookie ball, while he has struck out 9.0 and 8.5 per nine over the past two years.
Wilton Lopez: A 31 year-old right-hander, Lopez has more than 300 innings in the majors under his belt, and posts a career walk rate under 2.00 per nine (1.68). He’s languished in the Rockies’ system for two years, but as recently as 2012 and 2010, he was worth 1.3 and 1.1 WAR respectively as a middle reliever for the Astros.
Matt West – Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a converted shortstop with a big arm gets moved to the bullpen. No, wait! Come back! West is still just 26 years old, and has just 117 professional innings on his arm thus far. Last season was the first in which he was able to keep his free passes down to 2.9 per nine, thus earning him a mid-season call-up with the Rangers. He pitched two clean outings before getting dinked and doinked by the Blue Jays on July 20th to the tune of three runs. He did manage to strike out Jose Bautista on three pitches, though, and that must have left an impression on someone.
Maybe those are the resumes that you place at the top of the pile. But you don’t build bullpens filled with superstars. In 1985, the Blue Jays plucked a scuffling 26 year-old out of an Arlington scrap heap based on his 4.20 ERA and 1.63 WHIP over three years of relief with the Rangers. And that big, lanky bespectacled dude was Tom Henke, who saved 217 games and sold a heap of Aqua Velva over the next eight seasons in Toronto.
Which isn’t to say that there’s a Terminator 2 in waiting among those listed above. But you never know from whence those guys will emerge.
