We’ve gone over how the five worst offenses and rotations of last season now look with the offseason nearing completion. We’ll do the same here with the quintet of bullpens that had the most difficulty preventing runs in 2019. Judging a bullpen just by ERA is an admittedly crude method, though each of the relief units in question here also posted subpar fielding-independent metrics. The bottom line is that they struggled. Let’s see how they stack up now…
Baltimore Orioles (5.79 ERA/5.38 FIP; current depth chart)
- No surprise to see the Orioles at the bottom, considering the rebuilding outfit’s myriad difficulties last season. The Orioles didn’t get particularly impressive production from any of their relievers. Even their No. 1 option, Mychal Givens, had trouble at times, though he did strike out better than 12 batters per nine. Givens is on track to open the season with the Orioles, but he could certainly be an in-season trade candidate. If they move him, it would further weaken a bullpen that hasn’t added anyone of note this offseason.
Washington Nationals (5.68 ERA/4.94 FIP; current depth chart)
- The Nationals proved last season that you can have a bottom-of-the-barrel bullpen from a statistical standpoint and still win the World Series. However, general manager Mike Rizzo’s in-season tinkering with the group proved effective, especially the acquisition of flamethrowing closer Daniel Hudson at the trade deadline. Hudson remains in the fold, having re-signed in free agency for two years and $11MM. In an even bigger move, the Nationals signed Will Harris – a former Astro whom they upended in the Fall Classic – to a three-year, $24MM pact. With those two and the returning Sean Doolittle, Washington appears to be in nice shape late in games, but it’ll need more from Hunter Strickland, Roenis Elias, Wander Suero and Tanner Rainey.
Colorado Rockies (5.18 ERA/5.12 FIP; current depth chart)
- There were few oft-used bright spots last season in Colorado’s bullpen, which didn’t get much from anyone but Scott Oberg and Carlos Estevez. The good news is that it’s hard to imagine Wade Davis, Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee pitching much worse in 2020 than they did last season. And even if they do, they’re all entering the final guaranteed season of their onerous contracts, so they shouldn’t be the Rockies’ problem for much longer. In the meantime, the Rockies are going to need bounce-back efforts from them because they haven’t meaningfully addressed their late-game setup this offseason.
Kansas City Royals (5.07 ERA/4.55 FIP; current depth chart)
- Kansas City’s another team that has been quiet in the past few months, despite its less-than-stellar output a year ago. There are a couple bullpen trade candidates on hand in Ian Kennedy and Tim Hill, arguably the Royals’ two best relievers, but nothing has materialized on those fronts thus far. Kennedy was terrific last season in his first year as a reliever, though the fact that he’s due $16.5MM in 2020 has likely scared off interested teams.
New York Mets (4.99 ERA/4.71 FIP; current depth chart)
- The Mets were extremely busy in trying to repair their bullpen last offseason, when they traded for ex-Mariners star Edwin Diaz and signed Jeurys Familia and Justin Wilson. The latter pitched well during an injury-shortened campaign, but Diaz and Familia fell off a cliff, which is why the Mets are on this list a year later. At least in Diaz’s case, though, it would be reasonable to expect a much better performance in 2020. He struck out over 15 batters per nine and maintained his 97 mph velocity last year, after all, and isn’t going to surrender home runs on 27 percent of fly balls again this season. Regardless of how he does, the Mets have added some notable support to their relief unit in the past several weeks. They signed former Yankee Dellin Betances, one of the elite relievers in recent memory (albeit one coming off an injury-ruined year), as well as the accomplished Brad Brach. They also have the newly signed Michael Wacha as a potential long relief option, not to mention holdovers Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman.
Look at the Mets’ bullpen on paper and they should be really good, as long as the relievers don’t have similar issues as last year. If their SPs and bullpen come together, that’s a scary staff. They’re getting all the right pieces into place, it’ll be interesting to see what happens this season.
The biggest surprise here is the red sox aren’t on this list and they will be for sure next season
In terms of era Boston’s bullpen ranked better than its starters.
The Sox actually had the 5th best cumulative WAR amongst bullpens and led the league in K/9
Good grief how are the Mariners not on any of these lists.
There were some pretty bad bullpens last year…
Are my glasses not working? Where are the RS in this group?
Was Colorado’s bullpen really that terrible, based on ERA and FIP? Shaw had an ERA+ of 97 despite having a 5.38 ERA, so if we apply the same standard to the ERA and FIP as a group, wouldn’t they be an average bullpen? Not saying their bullpen was good, but was it really close to being as bad as the rest of the list?
Why is it just assumed Diaz will be good again? “isn’t going to surrender home runs on 27 percent fly balls again”
Why isn’t he? I get the hope that he will bounceback to his former level, and I wouldn’t be shocked if he has a great year, but I don’t assume it as fact. Isn’t it just as possible that he simply lost it?
have fun with DeLlin Betances (it’s funny because he’ll be on the DL all year)
It’s not funny when you have to tell us why it is.
It’s also not called the DL anymore
Huh…the Marlins aren’t on this list. Listening to the media, you’d swear they were last in everything.
At least they decided to work on their bullpen before they ended up on this list.
They’re last in fan intelligence.
Hudson’s numbers with the Nationals were WAY above career norms, therefore a typical deviation back to average should be expected. Did he greatly underachieve for 8 1/2 years and figure it out with the Nats or did he just catch the momentum over a very small sample time?
I would expect Doolittle to carry the closer load with Hudson in the 7th or 8th with occasional save looks after Doolittle goes successive days.
By mid season, Doolittle, Harris and even Strickland should jump him in late inning pressure situations – at least until the water cooler catches Strickland on an off day. (Pun intended)
Worth noting with the Nats…the main culprits of those poor numbers were all jettisoned midseason. Once they moved on from Rosenthal, Barraclaugh, etc the pen steadily improved over their pretty historic 2nd half. Using their limited pen in the playoffs effectively (Doo, Hudson, Rainey, etc) helped them win the title.
I know that statistically the pen looked horrific but applying some context tells us that their pen turned into a pretty solid unit that contributed to a title by the end.
And Grace.