Recent struggles in the Red Sox bullpen look ominously familiar to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, writes ESPN Boston’s Scott Lauber. As Lauber notes, a faulty bullpen was a frequent Achilles heel for Dombrowski’s Tigers teams that made the postseason (or came close to doing so), and the relief corps is the weak link for Boston right now. The July acquisitions of Brad Ziegler and Fernando Abad haven’t been enough to solidify the staff (Abad has struggled quite a bit), leaving manager John Farrell with a great deal of uncertainty in the late innings. A return for Koji Uehara (more on that here), a successful transition to the bullpen for Clay Buchholz or Joe Kelly, and a last-minute add from outside the organization are three possible saving graces, Lauber writes, noting that Kelly in particular has excelled out of the bullpen at Triple-A Pawtucket.
More from the AL East…
- The Marlins are finally making good, to some extent, on the hopes and expectations that they carried into the 2015 season, and Patrick Dubuque of Baseball Prospectus breaks down the roster moves that set the stage for an interesting 2016 campaign. While most pundits were down on the organization’s dealings, many haven’t turned out as badly as feared. In the meantime, the club has received highly unexpected results from many players — some negative, but many quite positive (albeit questionably sustainable). Dubuque remains bearish on the Miami organization; you’ll want to give his piece a full read to gather the details.
- MLB.com’s Mark Bowman fielded some relevant questions from Braves fans. Among other items, he notes that the club now seems somewhat unlikely to promote infielder Ozzie Albies to join prospective double-play mate Dansby Swanson in the majors this year — even though he still has a chance at playing a major role in 2017. Speaking of next year, Bowman says it wouldn’t be surprising at this point if interim skipper Brian Snitker is retained, though the team has several other internal and external candidates it may wish to consider.
- The Braves’ interest in bringing back Brian McCann will likely be revived in the offseason, Bowman further writes. He no longer looks like a terribly plausible trade candidate right now, and Atlanta may wish to explore the free agent market first. Improving the situation behind the plate and bolstering the rotation remain the club’s two major offseason goals, he adds. The team may also look at a third baseman, he suggests.
- The Mets are likely to bring righty Logan Verrett back to the majors today, ESPNNewYork.com’s Adam Rubin reports. While fellow right-hander Rafael Montero delivered some useful frames yesterday, he’ll need regular rest and isn’t expected to command a rotation spot anyway, so the club will use the opportunity to add a fresh arm to the mix. Verrett, 26, has turned in 25 2/3 quality frames as a reliever, but has struggled to a 6.45 ERA over a dozen starts on the year.
I don’t see how the Marlins are making that much good? Their ace is going to be shut down soon and every pitcher behind that is #3 at best. Their bullpen is average, and their best hitter can’t stand on the field. Feels like this year is Miami’s best chance…Nats and Mets will still be fine next year and Philly and Atlanta will improve.
They have more than that. The whole outfield is fantastic (Yelich is one of the most underappreciated great players in baseball). You’ve got Gordon. Realmuto. They’ve got some real talent, and much of it is young. But their lack of prospects, plus the Stanton contract, will kill them eventually because they don’t have any good way of adding where they need it.
They should have traded Stanton. Just like the Angels should trade Trout.
Not that I am advising it, but if MIA were to have (past-tense, before extending Giancarlo) traded Stanton and Jose Fernandez, a smart GM would have been able to get enough quality prospects for a really interesting team for years to come. Granted, the cost control would be very risky especially when trading genuine stars, and the fans would revolt (again), but rather than the dismantle they have had in the past, this would be 2 star players, but the return could have been incredible.
Woulda – Coulda – Shoulda
Very underrated bullpen.
Really who’s gonna hit for the mets next year , and gheeze look at all the injured ( and history of injuries ) on that met staff , not to mention matz ( if he weren’t on the dl) and Thor would be or will be shut down at some point for the same innings limit . Cesepides is only going to get a lot more expensive when he ops out. Marlins have much better hitting than the mets
Really? Cause the marlins have only scored .2 runs a game more than the mets this year and although Giancarlo and bour have been hurt the mets have had much greater injury problems including stints with Duda, wright, cespedes, Cabrera, Reyes, lagares, walker, and darnaud unhealthy. A healthy mets offense out scores the Marlins and even an unhealthy mets rotation out pitches the Marlins.
Typical Dombrowski team. Dombrowski and a solid bullpen are like the Philadelphia Flyers and solid goaltending – neither are seen in the same place at the same time.
Great analogy! To be fair, Dombrowski keeps trading and signing for bullpen help but players like Joe Nathan and Carson Smith fall off a cliff. However, Dombrowski never prepares for that. His bullpens never have depth.
Im calling BS on that one. A bullpen of Kimbrel, Uehara, and Smith followed by Tazawa (who was great last season) figured to be one the best bullpens in baseball. Only a complete shutdown by 2 of them and a complete meltdown by a 3rd led to the current state of affairs. If you need 5 A arms (without hindsight bias) to have a deep bullpen your standards are extraordinary.
Garbage. Smith didn’t fall off a cliff, he’s hurt. Just like so many other young pitchers. Uehara also missed two months, and Tazawa whos been good for us since 2009, has came undone. Not sure how you can blame that on DD,
But Dombrowski has not appropriately replaced Smith or Uehara. Koji is up there in age, I don’t think it takes a crystal ball to see injuries on his horizon, and Smith has been down for a while and not been replaced. Tazawa I’ve never trusted, particularly since he gets lit-up by Toronto. Kimbrel, too, has been hurt and even spotty when healthy. I think Toronto has done a far better job bolstering their bullpen than Boston. Again, typical Dombrowski team. Is Jose Valverde available?
Nothing wrong with Kimbrel when healthy, Smith pretty much done for right after the season began with his elbow, even tho the final decision with regards to TJ was put off until around June. Taz might be 41, tho how many other relievers have put up those kind of numbers in the history of the game not named Wihelm, or Rivera at that age? Think he’s not done too bad as a 7-8th inning guy and Ziegler has done a superb job since July.
Taz gets tagged (as always) by the Jays for some reason. He began falling apart in early July this season and his velocity each season it seems the last 3y has started to drop a tad, plus his fork ball is losing it’s bite. Not a good combo. Is something wrong? Who knows, but that’s the issue nobody really saw coming if anything so early. Barnes and Hembree both did nice jobs early and seem to have ran into trouble the last couple of weeks, could be tired. Ross has been solid.
Tazawa was over used early
Hard to replace a guy like Smith when prices of relievers are so high the last couple years. Kimbreal has been fine. Tazawa has been a big part of the Red Sox including the 2013 World Series. So what he gets rocked by the Blue Jays, that team has had nasty line up for years. I’d be worried if he had been getting smoked by the A’s or Twins, not the Blue Jays. Going into this year he was supposed to be the 4th guy. Once roster expend we will be in much better shape with Johnson, Owens and Kelly in the mix. Look at what we had to give up to get Kimbrel & Pomeranz. Prospect value is down right now and Young MLB Pitching is sky high.
Hard to judge Dombrowski on this one, regardless of his past, because Farrell has no clue about using a bullpen. No assigned roles (except closer), and he lacks feel for when to make a change; he must lead the league in pitching changes with bases loaded.
Agreed. John Farrell is irritating.
The NL East has the potential of being stronger than the NL Central in 2017. The Mets will need to add some offense if they expect to compete. You can’t have starters feeling they need to throw a shutout every night to win. Too many high leverage innings takes a heavy toll as the season progresses.
Thanks for that post I needed a good laugh . Please nl east has Washington , the rest of the teams have more holes than Swiss cheese- mets staff can’t stay healthy and they don’t hit nor do they play def , Atlanta and philly still rebuilding
Joe Kelly is throwing a 1.59 ERA (and matching 1.57 FIP) down in AAA. Red Sox are just waiting for the September call ups I presume.
Kelly will get lit up when he pitches in the bigs. Until he learns an off speed pitch to complement his heater, hitters will just sit on the fastball and pound him. Poor coaching, IMHO.
I hope the Braves Keep Snitker. It seems to be an actual improvement since he took over, even before Kemp showed up. Plus, it would be a terrible idea to follow the NFL’s philosophy of giving a coach the worst team in the league and then firing him for not taking them to the playoffs the next year.
I think their will be a lot of trading going on in the off season, the free agent market is weak. It will be hard for any team to improve. The free agent pitching this off season is very poor, with Colon and Fister the top choices.
The only reason the braves would sign McCann would be for him to mentor whoever the braves saw fit to be the future catcher. He has almost no value anymore beyond that. The only reason he even still hits HR’s is becuase left field is so sort at Yankees stadium. McCann was a great Brave but the braves wet right in letting him sign elsewhere years ago as the braves for the best of hi. At an early age and now that he is beyond his prime. It would be a waste of quite a bit of money to go out and make a trade for him. Gary Sanchez is the now in New York with all the home runs he is hitting but don’t expect the Yankees to give him away. They will want something in return and I don’t believe the braves need to get rid of any future pieces to acquire him.