ITP 151 - AL Bullpen Preview

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Hello and welcome to the In The Pen Podcast, a podcast about relievers part of the Pitralis

podcast network.

My name is Jake Crumpler and as always, I'm joined by Pitralis's bullpen expert, Rick

Graham.

Rick, we are like two weeks away from opening day, have you been watching the WBC?

Yeah, I've been watching a lot of it, not all of it, but yeah, I've been watching the

games last night's Dominican, the Venezuelan game was awesome, there's the electricity

in that environment there, it's crazy, so fun.

And then yeah, it was also for us being a reliever podcast, fun to see.

Both teams, but specifically the Dominicans, it's just bullpen, those guys all coming

out throwing 98 plus, just yeah, it's a fun team to watch.

But yeah, I mean, obviously the Italians have been making some noise, that's a cool story.

That is like a good tea, that's a pretty good roster though, I mean, especially they're

going to be good in the next one or four years from now.

That's like Fini Pascantino is probably the oldest position player on that roster or John

Birdie, I guess, but you know, Noles up there too, but other than that, that's a pretty

fun, you know, Italian group, but yeah, it's been a, that's been probably one of my, the

funner storylines just seeing how they've been playing, but yeah, it's always great, especially

when they have these day games and I'm, you know, working from home, I can just put on

whatever games on during the day and watch it.

Yeah, it's, it's been pretty, sorry, I can't believe US almost got eliminated.

There was a small opportunity there for Mexico to win and for Italy to not score a lot

around.

I thought maybe there'd be a little bit of teamwork on their parts to try to knock US out,

but man, Mark Dorosa is not doing himself any favors.

He's looking really foolish up there and every single time he opens his mouth, he looks

even worse.

Yeah, it's not, I mean, anyone who, who, who knows or follows Mark Dorosa, that shouldn't

be too much of a surprise.

I mean, yeah, he's not the worst guy in MLB network.

I'm not, not by a long stretch, but like, yeah, I think, Bubba, Bubba tweeted something

like a Harold Margarosa showing, yeah, showing what happens when you hang out with Harold

Reynolds too much between Vescaursion and Harold Reynolds, like they, they do a show in

the offseason and like in the mornings and it's just like, it's, it's, it's painful.

It's really painful.

And I wish there was some good content, like, you know, like good content there, like for

those four hours or two hours in the morning, but yeah, Dorosa, I mean, they got lucky.

I hope with it, that team locks in, it's, it's, it's so weird with the pitching, how

the pitching lines up and like, now like, they've had to add, they added Tim Hill today.

It's like Tim Hill's on, like, we were saying Tim Hill is one of the best to represent

United States. I don't, I understand how it is, but like, yeah, I don't know, it's, it's,

it's weird that like Ryan Yarborough is going out there and Tim Hill and, well, yeah, because

Tared Scoobal thought that it was going to be like a all-star game type vibe. And now he's

off the team. And that's bad press for him too, especially right before free agent.

I think it depresses his, his future free agent earnings at all. But definitely interesting

to see him throw himself under the bus so often when he talks to.

Yeah, I don't know, there's something weird with that whole team. And I, I mean, I, they

can't, I'm hoping they don't, they, I mean, I really don't care too much for the US to

win. But like, they shouldn't be taking Canada like, you know, lightly tomorrow. It's

not a bad squad. No, it really seems like they, they have like too much, no, I don't

want to say too much talent, but they're so talented that it's like they think they are

just guaranteed to win no matter what. And yeah, in most cases, but I would say in other

sports, that would be more the case like in basketball where you see like those crazy USA teams

go into the Olympics. Yeah, that's destroying the competition. It's like in baseball,

anything can happen. So, especially when, when they're starting pitching is what they're

starting pitching is, it's like you, unless skiing is out there or, or Scoobal who's not,

who's gone. I mean, like, yeah, it's, it's not, it's not, those guys are hit a pull,

those guys are beatable. So, it really feels like, like the Dominican Republic is going to win

right now, just the energy that they have. I haven't been watching anything. I've

been watching all the recaps and I'm still catching up a little bit. That line up is,

I think that line up is better than the US. Yeah. That's, that's the best lineup I've

ever seen in my life. You've got like, Julio batting seventh. It's ridiculous. So if they could

just find enough pitchers, they will, they'll get through there. But it sounds like the bullpen's

good. And I've never seen, like, players play with so much energy as they do for the DR. So,

that's going to be really exciting to see who makes it to the semi-finals and ultimately who wins.

That's going to be, and I'm fortunately, I'm going to be on a train coming home from New York

on Sunday night, win that semi-final between the US and Dominican. If they both win, if the Dominican

beats the Republic, if they beat Korea and the US beats Canada, that's Sunday night at seven.

I'm likely on train coming home and I'm so upset about that. But yeah, I'll be trying to watch

with the poor Wi-Fi on the Amtrak as I come from New York. But yeah, that game is going to be,

yeah, really fun. All right. Yeah. Here's hoping to gain a good, yeah, good rest of the WBC

moving forward. But let's get into talking about some relievers. We are three weeks away from

opening day. I think like exactly where today we're going to do a preview of all the bullpen's in

the American League next week. We'll do the National League preview. And then after that,

I'm pretty sure we're just recording straight up on opening day. It's always on a Thursday.

It's always like every single team starts at the same time or whatever or at least starts on

the same day. So it's going to be pretty exciting. But that means we only have two more off-season

podcasts left. And that also means we, right, one more after this one. That also means we are

wrapping up the last free agent relievers and finding homes for them. We've been talking about them

all season. There are a couple southpaws that found new homes over the past week. One of them is

more notable than the other. So we'll start with him. The Red Sox signed Danny Coulomb to a one-year

contract. It was surprising that he didn't get much interest because he's been so good over the

past four years. Since 2022, he's got a 2.38 ERA across 136 innings. He is entering his age 36 season.

Do you think Danny Coulomb finds a spot in this Red Sox bullpen? And how quickly do you think he

puts himself in the position to get some holds for the club? Probably. I mean, this is the

best bullpen scenario for a guy like Coulomb. I think probably age and his injury history or why he

didn't get a deal right away. But that Red Sox bullpen behind, I mean, we've talked about it a

little bit before. Then we'll talk about it today. But it's top-heavy with Chapman, Whitlock,

and then even Slayton's the next guy up, Weiser, Zach Telly, and then it just really falls off a cliff.

I would imagine maybe Coulomb takes Giovanni Moran's spot, or maybe they both, they take both lefty's.

They have openings at the back end of that bullpen. So Coulomb, especially being left-handed,

is a nice Justin Wilson replacement, essentially, for them.

The best lefty, probably the second best reliever left on the board as of today. So good

signing for the Red Sox. Hopefully, he just stays healthy and give them good left-handed innings.

All right, that's Danny Coulomb. And then the other Southpa that signed with a club this

past week was Jalen Beaks. He signed with the Texas Rangers. They've got a very veteran

laden roster right now. So Beaks fits the mold, I think, there. He is entering his age 32 season.

And last year, he was pretty decent for a Dimevax team that really just needed available arms.

And Beaks was there making 61 appearances with a 3.77 ERA. So he'll factor into the

Rangers bullpen right now. If the only lefty they have outside of Robert Garcia projected for the

bullpen is Tyler Alexander. So I do see an opportunity for Beaks to make the opening day roster for

the Rangers. Yeah, and they already have. I mean, there's a couple projected minor league guys

on the roster right now who I don't know if they'll make it. I mean, Josh Spores does not look

great this spring, unfortunately. And who knows about Ryan Brazier. So yeah, Beaks probably has a good

chance, especially you signed this late. You're probably going to get a chance as long as you,

you know, you're healthy going into the regular season. So yeah, I imagine Beaks. I think it's

a major league deal for him too. So yeah, Beaks will probably be on that roster. And that might

be a little bit of a good good news for, you know, Robert Garcia being the closer that they

want to go and get a second lefty in that bullpen. So Garcia could take the ninth. But yeah,

that's that's reading the tea leaves a little bit there. No, that's a that is a great point.

Usually you have some uncertainty or some hesitancy when it comes to a southpaw closer. If there's

nobody there will support him from the left side. So you'll managers will want to use that lefty

in situations outside of the ninth. But if the Rangers have other weapons from the left side,

like Tyler Tyler Alexander and Jalen Beaks, then Robert Garcia may be safely locked into the

closer role for the Rangers. Now let's talk about some news and injuries from the past week.

We'll stay in the ALS and talk about the angels where manager Kurt Suzuki talked about Kirby Yates.

Suzuki said, I'm a big fan. Obviously he's from Hawaii and we brought that up. Kirby Yates is from

Hawaii. Yeah, I know weird. There's a funny thing to mention too. Like just some loyalty to like,

oh, well, he's born in Hawaii. I might get him some saves. He could go ahead. I know that's

the thing. It's like, is that really is that something that we should, I don't know. But yeah,

it's it's weird, but it could it could factor into the situation here. Sure.

Suzuki continued saying, but just watching Kirby pitch in big situations, he was one of the

best closers in the game for a long time. Last year he dealt with injuries and mechanical issues,

but he's in a good place right now, mentally and physically. It sounds like nobody has really

separated themselves just yet in the angels bullpen and Suzuki. He said Monday that while he

preferred to have a set closer, he's open to having several options and Kirby Yates has the most

experience in the ninth inning for the angels, but he'll still have to earn that role after the

down year. Yates said, you always pitch yourself into a role in the bullpen. And obviously,

I want to be in the back end. I'm most comfortable pitching the ninth, but I've got to go out there

and pitch well. So it sounds like everything's working in Yates's favor. It's just about him staying

healthy and him getting back on track, which you're you're not guaranteed that given Yates's age

and injury history. But the ceiling is off the charts given what he did for the Rangers a couple

years ago and what he's done for the Padres in years past. And the state of the angels bullpen

allows for Yates to get into that role and sort of hold on to it. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean,

talks about how he's in a good place now, mentally and physically. And he hasn't pitched a ton.

I mean, he's thrown once in March. He's only thrown one time in March, I think. So

in February, his stuff was down even from last year. That being said, I mean, he's thrown once,

that's one more time than Robert Siemensen's been on the mound in a spring training game.

Romano has been okay, but not he's not like this. He's not showing 2021, 22, Jordan Romano.

And you know, I don't I don't this bullpen is just really if Yates wasn't going so high,

I think that's how I want to put it because he's kind of creeping up right now into the early

300s, maybe even before 300s in rounds. Like I might take a chance at the end of the 300 range,

400 range, but yeah, I don't see the the return to him. You know, Suzuki talks about him being

one of the best closers for a long time, but he's he's that's that was a long time ago.

It was only for like one or two seasons too. Yeah, and like 2019 and I know you have the year in

Texas, but we've you know, we've talked about that year and it's a little fluky and you got lucky

there a little bit, but it's still good. I mean, he could still be a good closer, but I just

there's there's a lot of risk here and especially in his age and

um yeah, I will this bullpen is probably going to be a headache for a while,

unless Robert Stevenson just like just gets healthy and you know, shut the solop, I guess,

but I don't think he hates it's going to be if he does start the year in the world, it's going to be

rocky, I bet. Yeah, we've talked a lot about the raise bullpen and it's clear now that Edwin

Usetta is not expected to be ready for opening day, the 28 year old doesn't appear to be facing a

long-term absence, however, Usetta has been playing catch without issue. It's not clear if you'll

make it into an exhibition game before spring trainings over. You shouldn't need a lot of time to

build up given he's a reliever, but he'll still need to prove that he's ready for in-game situations

before the race deploy him. So I think that gives us that enhances our already strong confidence in

both Griffin Jacks and Garrett Clevenger for the late innings in Tampa Bay. Yeah, I mean,

and it's even for Usetta, it's, I was kind of forgetting about him in deeper leagues, but you

might maybe in the later rounds if he does come back by the end of April, there's definitely value

potentially there. I still don't see him factoring into the closing role, but yeah, and again,

also, it's good he's playing catch, but these shoulder injuries, you never know what way they're

going to turn, they could get worse, they could get better, but yeah, it's, I mean, I think from

everything we knew before this week, that's probably better news than the worst case scenario,

and the fact that he's throwing, and they think he'll be ready at some point in the near future,

but just yeah, opening day was probably never going to happen for Usetta, but yeah, again,

I don't, you know, Griffin Jacks, but value should continue to just be skyrocketing at this point.

All right, I love that. Somebody else's value who skyrocketing is Brian Ebreu, and that's because

the interim closer Josh Hader is set to begin the season on the injured list, according to manager

Joe Aspada. The Astros were encouraged by the bullpen session that Hader had this week, but a

timeline for his buildup will carry past opening day. Hader is dealing with a new injury,

different from the one that ended his 2025 season prematurely. We hyped up Brian Ebreu a lot

last week, and I think we're a little bit vindicated in doing so. Wow, this doesn't guarantee that

like Hader's out for the season or whatever. I think we were both of the same opinion that

Hader's going to have this bullpen, and you know, he's just not going to be ready for opening day.

I thought it might be more severe, like he might have to undergo surgery or something. But

regardless, Ebreu is going to open the season as the closer, which sort of locks you into a few

saves. That doesn't mean, though, that I think Ebreu could pitch himself above Hader. So like,

even when Hader returns, I think he's automatically locked into the closer role. It's now just like,

if you're a Brian Ebreu, rosterer in fantasy, you're sort of just hoping that either Hader doesn't

look his best when he returns or that, that I'll stay last a little longer.

Yeah, I mean, Hader's not a big innings guy. I mean, he's never really, he has never thrown,

I mean, the past few years, he's not wanting to throw 60, 70 innings. So,

you know, it's still, even if Hader comes back, there's always, you know, potential for him to

miss time. It's later on in the year, just with his history. I think, Ebreu,

yeah, I think he's going probably, he's probably a little bit too high right now, but I understand,

especially when you, you know, you can get, you know, a couple of saves early on in the year.

There is value to that. And then Ebreu is still a good, with Ebreu to roster either way.

So, I, I, I get that, I'm wondering, I mean, I, I've, I drafted Hader at 135 and TGFBI,

but that was kind of before we knew that he's, he had that positive bullpen session. So,

I'm wondering, yeah, like, interesting to see how the last, the next two weeks go for Hader,

where, where is he going to end up being drafted? I still think he's probably someone he

want to take in as a top 15 reliever, just the upside there. And if he's only going to miss

a week or two, then, you know, that's, that wouldn't even really worry about that. But, yeah,

we'll see what the next steps are, because yeah, it's only been one, one bullpen session that they

were encouraged by. So, there's going to be, there's multiple steps here for him to pass before

he's ready to go. But he's not so far. Yeah, so far, it's, it's good news, I think, for Hader,

ultimately. We, again, same of you said, we, we nearly was very unlikely. He'd be ready for

opening day. But at least they were encouraged by his bullpen, I guess.

All right. In San Diego, Jason Adam has been ahead of schedule as he rehabs from a ruptured

quad tendon. He said, the plan as of this moment is to work one more bullpen sim game,

and then see if his first cactus league game outing next likely this weekend. See if that goes well.

So, Jason Adam could avoid opening the season on the IEL, but it sounds like he's been ahead

of schedule and will factor into this Padre's bullpen in April at the very least.

Yeah, I think that, I think it's probably safe just to, you know, give him a week or two,

let him, there's no need to rush him back, especially with that bullpen. They can survive

a couple of weeks without him. So, yeah, still good news with Adam for holds leagues. He's,

always always a rock in holds leagues. So, probably you can feel safe drafting him where you would

normally. And, you know, I'd say in a save holds league, he's at least the top 50 option,

probably top 40. So, yeah, it's good news for him as well.

All right. That's Jason Adam. Cubs manager Craig Council revealed that Porter Hodge has been

shut down from throwing due to a right flexor strain. Council noted that the expectation is that

Hodge will begin the season on the injured list. Really unfortunate after Hodge's breakout 2024

campaign where he had a sub to ERA, got a handful of saves and looked like the closer of the future

for the Cubs, but really struggled last year. ERA over six was up and down between the minor leagues.

And now, not able to stay healthy heading into 2026. That not only locks Plansia into the

clothes roll, not that Hodge was going to be the one pushing him for it, but I think it means

that Phil Maeton and Hunter Harvey are going to get the bulk of the holds in Chicago. Hodge was

really going to have to work his way back into high leverage situations, but yeah, I think Hunter

Harvey is somebody who benefits a lot from that because he should get more opportunities in that

seventh inning role. Yeah, and that's a guy who so far, Harvey looks pretty good. This spring,

his Velo's back up to where we've liked him at 97 range. Again, Harvey just needs to stay healthy.

That's always been his thing, but yeah, it's still hoping for something from Hodge this year.

Some sort of middle relief setup role because even last year, yeah, I don't think he's built

to be a closer, but there's a really good reliever there when healthy in Porter Hodge. So

hopefully we see him at some point this year. Flexor strands can be tricky, obviously, so

but yeah, the Cubs will be able to survive without him.

The Guardians may not be able to survive without Hunter Gattis, though, who's been one of their

top set-up men for the past couple of years, 35 holds last year, and Gattis is currently dealing

with right forearm tightness and is continuing his throwing progression at 90 to 120 feet. However,

the team anticipates him throwing off a mound in the coming days, and that's pretty positive

for the likelihood of him opening the season on the roster and avoiding NIL. So Hunter Gattis

trending towards being ready for opening day, but there is that slight concern that if he hits

any setback over the next week, that maybe not. Yeah, he should be all set by this. I worry about

the Cleveland and Guardian. The Gattis and Kate Smith and just the way that they're overworked there.

It's going to come back to bite them. Hopefully for them, it's not at the same time. If they lose

Gattis and Smith at the same time, that's an issue, obviously. But yeah, they need to rethink

how often they use these guys, and it started with Class A before this, and even when Frank

Cohen was there, it was the same issue. It's not just a Steven Boat thing.

But yeah, I think Kate Smith and Gattis, they probably need to just pump the brakes on them,

get them under 70 innings this year if they can. I know they lean on them, they need to. That's

kind of their best unit. They're bullpen, but yeah, those guys have been worked heavily the

last two years, Gattis and Smith. Right. Back to the Texas Bullpen after we talked about the

addition of Jalen Beaks. We're going to discuss Chris Martin for a sec whose career has

seemed over multiple times recently. He said at the close of the 2024 campaign that he was 95%

sure that 2025 season would be it for him. But this past season included three different

injuries for Chris Martin, punctuated by a chilling diagnosis of thoracic outlet syndrome.

And yet Martin is back with the Rangers on a one year deal. Do you remember ever hearing about

this TOS injury for Chris Martin? I don't remember. That's why I saw this. I think it was mining

the news. I think Jeff Zimmerman put this out and I'm like, I don't remember talking about this.

So why? I don't know. I mean, why is he pitching? His stuff has been down the spring. I was

not like too surprised by it. But like now, yeah, I mean, that's their eighth inning guy.

And he's going on 40 years old, coming off thoracic outlet syndrome.

Yeah, that's really, this whole Rangers bullpen is really, really questionable.

I think when they talked about Martin being a, you know, a chance to close out games, I don't

I don't know if we can rely on him to be healthy throughout the whole year. So I don't think

that's going to happen. So yeah, I guess again, we're talking about Robert Garcia stock going up.

I guess by default, it's Robert Garcia's the only guy in that bullpen who is probably the only guy

that like is the JIT MLB ready bullpen arm right now. Like on good teams, he's probably the only guy

who's on, he was in a bullpen. So yeah, that's it's Garcia's job to lose here.

You're right. Yeah, pair of news coming out that I think really locks Garcia into that role,

not only having the left-handed support, but also the idea that Chris Martin is like on the verge

of his arm falling off. So he's probably not going to be, he was going to retire anyway. Yeah,

it's so weird. He's not really going to be competing for that closer role. So yeah, that's a good

news for people drafting. Robert Garcia. And if you haven't gotten to a point in your draft,

where he's been drafted, I think you can have a little bit more confidence in him closing out

the majority of games for the Rangers, but that will do it for our news and injuries section

here. So then we can jump right into our American League bullpen preview, but first we're going

to take a quick break here on in the pen. Whether you're into unsolved mysteries,

solved mysteries, or creating your own mysteries, Amazon Music's got millions of podcast episodes

waiting. Just download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite podcasts ad-free

included with Prime. And we're back, Jake Crumpler here with Rick Graham on in the pen,

discussing relievers. We are going to preview the American League asking a question about each

and every bullpen for 2026. Let's start in the AL East and kick it off with the Baltimore Orioles

who have added Ryan Hellsley this off season. I think the biggest question here with Andrew

Kitchwich out is how things stack up before Hellsley, because I don't think there's any question

who's going to be closing out the majority of games for the Orioles with Hellsley present.

I think the leash is going to be very long for Hellsley as well, but with Andrew Kitchwich out

and Felix Batista out for this season, it's like, well, who's going to be setting up for Ryan

Hellsley right now. It looks like Tegan Aiken and Yenier Kano are the top-likeliest candidates,

but there's some under-the-radar arms that we've discussed in the past, like Dietrich Enz and

Rico Garcia. So how are you seeing the 7th and 8th inning turn it out for the Orioles in 2026?

Yeah, I mean, Aiken and Kano maybe by default being like the leftovers, the guys who

have done this before and the 7th and 8th inning, they get the first crack, but I do like Enz and

Garcia better. I don't think Kano's like, I know last year was terrible, it was really unlucky,

but I don't think that's, I think there's still good innings left if Yenier Kano and Kegan Aiken

knows again, he can bounce back from last year as well. I think an interesting development also

is Tyler Wells moving into the bullpen full-time. I think he can really not be a factor out of the

bullpen for them. They've said that they moved in the bullpen because of Kitchwich's injury,

so it kind of worries me that Kitchwich might be out longer than we had thought.

But yeah, I think this bullpen will be fine, not flashy, not one of the best bullpens in baseball,

but I mean, I believe in Hellesley bouncing back this year. I don't think we're going to see

St. Louis Cardinals 2024 Ryan Hellesley, but I think we're going to get a pretty good

closer, pretty solid effort from him. And then yeah, behind him, I think there's

ends in Garcia can surprise and Aiken and Kano probably should be better than last year, so it's

solid bullpen. I think Kitchwich is a big x-factor though, if he's healthy, it does make everyone's

role a little bit better suited for what they are at this point. Yeah, looking at the minor

leagues, I'm somewhat interested by right-hander Anthony Nunez, who was acquired from the Metz

in the Cedric Mullens trade at the trade deadline last year. He was really excellent in the miners

last year between high A AA and triple A pitching for both the Metz and the Orioles 2.06 ERA

and a 38% strikeout rate from Anthony Nunez. And he's on the 40 man roster, so there is a chance

at some point he is up in this Orioles bullpen. Do you have any sort of insight on Anthony Nunez?

He has crazy stuff. He's on the top of like stuff leaderboards this spring.

He's more of a three pitch. He's not like a huge fastball with like a dominating breaking ball

type or lever. He's got three pitches, I believe. So little, I mean, yeah, he should factor in,

and like you said, he's on the 40 man already. So probably one of the first call-ups when a

reliever goes down, especially, I mean, yeah, but that's the type of upside that they need in that

bullpen or, you know, Pinot doesn't really strike out a lot of guys. In Ricca Garcia, it hasn't at

this point in his career either. So, you know, that Nunez gives them some some strikeout swing

and missability that they definitely need. All right. Well, that's the Orioles bullpen. So let's

move forward and discuss the Red Sox bullpen where they are led by Araldis Chapman and Garrett Whitlock.

I think the first question that comes to mind with the Red Sox is how much stock do we put into

Chapman's historic 2025 campaign in which he had a 1.17 ERA 32 saves and a 37% strikeout rate?

Is that a level he can carry over? And if not, is he somebody that gets removed from the close

or all? Yeah, it's definitely possible. And I will admit that I don't love that his

Velo has been down like two miles per hour this spring. Still is last as of his last outing.

That being said, I do think he and I'd never thought I would say this about him is that I think

he might be okay being a 96 to 97 mile per hour guy just because of how much his

slider and splitter have improved over the last two years, especially last year is the best we've

seen those two pitches. Yeah, the improvements in his command that I think were very like yeah,

right. But that was like super noteworthy last year where they talked about how Chapman was a guy

who would just throw pitches wherever he would just throw them. And now he realized that he can

choose where he throws them. So I think that's pretty big. And right, if he does have diminished stuff

in 2026, I feel like he should be able to still thrive. He is 38 though. So you never really know

how much he's able to bounce back from pitching so much or having reduced stuff.

And even with the diminished velocity in the spring, his stuff still grades out really well.

The fastball sinker splitter and slider. So yeah, I think it's you know, we're not going to obviously

we're not going to see the same year. He had last year, no matter what. But and with the little

bit diminished velocity, it's probably going to be a little bit worse than what we were hoping for.

But I still think he's unless there's like some major blowups. And I think the big issue is if his

command reverts back to where it was before, you know, 2024, if he starts walking guys again,

that's probably the one way to get him out of the closer, like to lose that closer role.

But as long as he's not, you know, given free, you know, given, given walks out and

yeah, I think he'll, I think he'll keep that role. It's especially like after Garrett,

like it's, it's champion and weightlock. And if you put weightlock into the closer role,

and that that bullpen is just like, how do you get the ball to weightlock now? It's a big,

exactly. It's a big question mark. So and I like Zach Kelly and Justin Slayton,

if you can bounce back as well. But yeah, there's so many question marks, even cooling on being there

now. Exactly. It's just the depth in that bullpen is not great. Right. And that sort of sets up my

next question where it's very clear that the depth is not the strength of this Red Sox bullpen.

However, I would argue that it is the strength of the staff as a whole. There's so many starters.

I think the question is, if necessarily necessary, which I expect it to be, which starter would you

see moving into the bullpen and sort of having a significant role? Because there's plenty of guys

there. There's, there's young guys like Peyton Toli and Connolly Early. There's guys coming back

from injury like Cutter Crawford and Patrick Sandeball. And then there's, you know, unproven guys

in the rotation like Johan Oviedo and Brian Beo really hasn't solidified himself either. I think

he's too much of an innings eater to expect him to move into the bullpen. But there's plenty of

options. Who would you see moving into the bullpen and having like a significant role?

I think the options probably, I mean Toli would be, it would be a beast out of the bullpen. And

I think that's kind of a last case or like a last resort is they want to still, they're still

trying to develop him as a starter. Maybe in the second half, there's no, if there's no rotation

spot for him, that's probably the best way to get him up. You could see the, the like Gare Crochet.

Right. Gare Crochet effication of Peyton Toli. Yeah. I also think if, you know,

if they get some other starters back, I mean, Oviedo would be interesting in a bullpen

role. Right. I know that's been floated around a little bit. But yeah, they're going to give him

a chance to start at least early on. And yeah, Cutter Crawford's probably the other one.

And I mean, late in the season, Tanner, how's coming back? That's him. He's probably a better bullpen

option anyway. So yeah, they guess they'll have some reinforcements as the season progresses.

But yeah, FD, like if you, if you get Chapman or Whitlock, end up on the IL, I, this bullpen is

really, it's going to be really tough to get the ball to the someone in the ninth inning at that

point. So they got to hope Chapman and Whitlock stay healthy, at least early on in the year.

All right. That's the Boston Red Sox. Let's move on to their rivals, the New York Yankees,

where they are led by Closer David Bednar, who was acquired from the pirates at last year's

trade deadline. And if you remember, the Yankees had a ton of acquisitions that also included

the current Yankees Camila Doval and Jake Bird. But some of the other notable names are gone from

that bullpen, namely David Williams and Luke Weaver. And there was another guy that was,

wasn't there another guy? No, that was it. Right?

Yeah, I think those are the two big names. Regardless, I think it's clear that this bullpen is

diminished from the state that it was in entering the postseason last year. And I guess the question

is other concerns that David Bednar, you know, was washed are those gone? Because there was a time,

especially when he was pitching for Pittsburgh that we thought he might be done for. I mean,

even as recently as last year, I know 2024 was a disaster for a Bednar, but 2025 he opened the season,

I think, on the injured list or in the minor leagues, one or the other. And he came back.

He got demoted after like his first two games. That's right. He came back. Yeah.

He came back and he was strong enough to earn a spot on the All Star team. I'm pretty sure.

And then got traded the Yankees and was pretty good there. I think we had sort of pinpointed

what his struggles were. He wasn't able to throw his curveball where he wanted to. And his

fastball was leaking over the plate. Are those concerns gone, though? Is this a guy that we can

just trust to be the no doubt closer for the Yankees for the whole season?

Look, I mean, the curve that that was the curveball command got way better throughout the season.

And that's why he was as good as he was. And that's great. I just I still worry about his stuff's

just not it's not like it's not as dominant as that's why I have a hard time putting him in that

top tier with the other guys I have. He's just there's the upside isn't there like it is with

those other seven. And I think that there's going to have to be another readjustment period for

him this year as it because like yeah, he's throwing his curveball for strikes, which is great,

but he's he's not exactly like throwing quality strikes with that he's he's getting it over the

plate, which is what was needed because hitters were taking it. But now like what if hitters start

sitting on him on his hanging curveball, similar to what happened with Raycella Glacier's last year

or every hitter was just sitting on his slider because he was just hanging a lot of sliders.

So again, it's going to be he doesn't have the dominant stuff to just like go out there and like

here throw your three best pitches. It's it's a little bit more of mixing up the the pitch mix

as the season progresses and just being able to locate a little bit better. So I'm I'm not like I'm

not down totally on Bednar, but that that being said, you know, I think devolves look pretty good.

This this this offseason in the spring. Stuff looks good again. I don't know. It's it's probably again

the Yankees probably will have a quicker hook with Bednar this year than they did with Devon Williams

last year. I think so we'll see if Bednar gets off to another slow start then

yeah, them they might go to the ball and Devon could easily want to run away with that role. He's

closed out games before for a long time. So right. Yeah, I mean, I'm okay with Bednar. I'm not I'm

just don't love how early he's he's crept up into that top tier of closures now where he's going

in like the 50 60 range and I don't I don't I don't quite see it. I get the opportunities great,

but I'm probably going to pass. The Yankees surprisingly, I think, have underrated depth where we have

guys like Brent Hedrick and on how she Vee projected to start this season in the minor leagues and

those are two guys that I think have a lot of upside. I mean, just she Vee leaving Colorado is huge

and Hedrick is somebody with the metrics that suggests that he's going to be a really good

reliever if he gets the opportunity. On top of that, you have a rotation that is likely to get

reinforcements from Garrett Colin Rodon as the season progresses, which should push some guys

into the bullpen. Namely, I think guys like Luis Heel, maybe Ryan Weathers if things aren't going

well and just to keep him healthy, but I think Heel is somebody that's somewhat interesting if he's

pitching out of the bullpen. I've never he was so good in his rookie year as a starter, but since then

it's like he just cannot throw strikes. I think he'd be great out of the bullpen. I'm excited to

see what Hedrick can do if he makes the roster. I think there's lots of guys that you can dream on

in this Yankees bullpen, but there's also a lot of downside. There's lots of instability

with a lot of these guys where it feels like we've seen all of them sort of blow up and become

irrelevant. Like Fernando Cruz doesn't throw enough strikes. Doval has been like down to the

minor leagues. Tim Hill could start throwing sub 80 or something. Jake Bird was not somebody that

the Yankees trusted Paul Blackburn had like the smallest sample of success out of the bullpen for

the Yankees. So there's lots of work case scenario. Yeah, we're like all those guys. It's just like

it's bad, but there's also like best case scenario where you have one of the best bullpen's in the league.

Yeah, exactly. It's very, very, very volatile, especially at the top of Bednar, Duff Hall and

Cruz. That's like, and then behind them, all you have is Tim Hill and Jake Bird. You're really,

you're really banking on that trio of volatility. But I mean, yeah, I think, you know, there's

upside there, obviously. And yeah, once they get coal and redone back, I mean, now all of a sudden,

like, yeah, if you said heal, weather is maybe we'll warrant if he's not working out in the rotation

as well. There's some starters that could be decent out of the bullpen as well, but yeah,

it's, it's, it's not the, it's similar to the Red Sox where it's like, you have a couple

guys at the top that are interesting, but then there's, there's a gap of meh. And yeah, but

but there's still volatility at the top, even with, you know, with who they have there. So

we'll see it's going to be interesting to see how how everything works with Bednar and Duff Hall

and Cruz from the seventh to seventh inning on. I can just see Yankee fans right now just like

this Fernando Cruz is going to go out and walk three guys. It's going to happen early on in the

season, you know, and then the ball is going to get hit around and it's just, yeah, there's, there's,

there's just a lot of it's going to be a frustrating bullpen, I think for free Yankee fans.

I think I can agree with that. A bullpen that's likely to not be frustrating is the race. This is

another bullpen that has a lot of depth and that's usually the strength of the race pitching staff

is they're just going to get the most out of every pitcher and you won't realize until the end of

the season that a guy like Cole Solser is going to have a sub to ERA or whatever, like they're

just going to get the most out of everybody. I think we've talked so much about like Gryffin

Jacks and Garen Clevenger and Brian Baker in the end that I think it's more interesting to

talk about, you know, who's going to be that next breakout arm for the race because that's

something they seem to always do. They'll find somebody that you've never heard of or somebody that

you sort of forgot about and turn them into one of the best relievers and then ultimately they'll

trade them for somebody really good and just continue the cycle. I think some names that stand

out for me. We were pretty hyped two years ago about Hunter Biggie. He's like a new friend.

All right, he throws really hard. I also like the idea of Joe Boyle moving from his position

as a starter. Yeah, I mean, he just throws so hard he can't throw strikes, but that's a guy that I

could see, you know, really taking off in this race bullpen. That would be fun. I mean, yeah, I

would welcome that especially since that doesn't seem like they're going to have a rotation spot for

him. I know injuries happen and you need like eight or nine starters at this point. That's how

the league is. But yeah, I mean, I think even as it like we talked about the top three and then,

you know, Biggie is going to, if he's healthy, he'll have a no pun intended, a big role in that bullpen.

But like Mason Engler, Kevin Kelly and Lucid Cole Solcer, like Cole Solcer has got some like

really good stuff. Kelly has looked at his moments as well. And Engler, it's like the guy,

no one really knows, but he's better than a lot of other teams, middle relievers. So

yeah, and then you got you set a comeback. Steven Wilson's kind of interesting manual. Meanwhile,

Rodriguez should be back. I think at the second half, maybe, or maybe not. He had surgery in

in August. Never mind. That's probably not going to happen. But anyway, the bullpen's deep,

they'll have guys coming up from the minors too. There's some interesting, you know, they have

a couple starters in the minors who could also be relievers like Ian Seymour from the left side.

Or Joe Rock. But there's other, they have some minor league, like, kind of strictly relief

types that are interesting as well. And I'm blanking on the names, but they'll be, they'll be,

yeah, this bullpen will be fine. Always ends up being okay in Tampa Bay, no matter what the

situation is. So they were more than okay last year. Yeah. Like based on results, they were the

best bullpen in baseball last year. And they really, one of these guys had like bad year or like

down years. They're just that good. And they really only lost Mason Montgomery. And it was not

great. But they're close. Oh, and Pete Fairbanks. Fairbanks had a good year. I mean,

clubbinger was great last year, but Jack struggled once you got there. Yeah, Baker. Yeah.

And you said it wasn't even his best self, too. His first half was terrible, but you said it was

good in the second half, but the first half still brought down their, their average is a little bit.

So yeah, I mean, moving back to the top though, they should all get a little bit of a boost.

But yeah, that, that's top three. And then top four, once you set us back is really,

it's one of the better groups in baseball. All right. Let's move on to the Blue Jays and

wrap up the AL East. This team made it all the way to the World Series last year. And while

their bullpen was very successful during the regular season, throughout the postseason, all I heard

from the commentators was how not good the bullpen was how like outside of Jeff Hoffman and Louis

Varlin, there was a lot of uncertainty. And I think a lot of that can be blamed on like a lack

of familiarity with pitching in big situations like that. They had so many young guys that had

never found their way into a postseason game guys like Brandon Little and Braden Fisher who had

incredible regular seasons with strikeout rates north of 30% and really good ERAs, but they couldn't

find that success during the season little because he doesn't throw enough strikes, Fisher,

because he doesn't really have a fastball that you can rely on. The team did add Tyler Rogers, but

do you think that we start seeing those cracks that we saw during the postseason show during

the regular season this year? Like was last year just sort of fluke and lucky? Or do we see the

the introduction of Rogers who's like a real stabilizing force in a bullpen? Do you think that

sort of allows everybody to be more comfortable, especially in a second year of this this relief court

together? Yeah, I think, I mean Rogers is yeah, like you said, stabilizing force in a bullpen that is

you know, violin throws hard, but a little inconsistent. Brandon Little strikes out everyone or

walks everyone. Fisher has his issues as much as he misses bats. So yeah, having Rogers there is

really a really different piece to what they have outside the rest of that bullpen. So it's a nice

yes stabilizing force for them who's gonna throw strikes, he's gonna get throw strikes to get

ground balls, give you innings. I think Jimmy Garcia being healthy is a big difference maker for

that bullpen as well because once you add Garcia, healthy Garcia with Rogers and Violin and Little

from the left side, I mean that's really, really deep. That's games over in the fifth inning

type potential. So yeah, and then they have you know, even you know, they have some depth in the

minors. This is the team then. This is why I had them in that first year as it's the depth that

they have. It really like they they have 12 relievers like that can give you. Yeah, I mean,

yeah, they're done. They've already got a six man rotation and that's like with Shane Bieber starting

the season on the IL and one two three four five six starters on the 40 man roster in the mind. They

see what the daughters have done and what yeah, what needs to be done to meet the daughters. It's just

to have just incredible pitching depth. So then do you think that makes it so that we don't see

sort of consistent roles because that's sort of what we've seen from the Dodgers is that the way that

they've been able to keep everyone healthy and keep everybody like ready once they get into the

postseason is by having guys go down to the minors like using up everybody's options. Yeah,

having guys spend time on the IL. Do you think that affects sort of the save plus hold situation

here with Jeff Hoffman or even Louis Varlins got an option. Braden Fisher is definitely going to

spend some time. Yeah, minor leagues. I don't know. I could see this sort of being like a real

ebb and flow bullpen where you're seeing a lot of different guys filter in and out.

Yeah, especially again, like if you have if you have Jimmy Garcia, then like who gets set second

set up role between Varlin Garcia and Rodgers. I'm sure Rodgers locked into the seventh or eighth

inning spot. But then like yeah, one of Varlin and Garcia kind of gets worked out. Brandon Little

still should be fine as just because he's their top lefty. But yeah, guys like Fisher who like

there's a lot of upside with Fisher getting misses a ton of bats. But I don't think he's going to

have a huge role as far as holds go. And like you said, he's probably going to be in AAA at some point

if not multiple points throughout the year, especially. Yeah, like when Garcia comes back,

which is supposed to be in April, he's not too far behind. I mean, Fisher's the guy to go,

right? Because that's I mean, the Tommy Nance is out of options. So he probably stays. And I don't

think they're going to move Varlin. I think it'll be Fisher goes down once Garcia is healthy. So

yeah, there's there's going to be a lot of, you know, there's going to be some talent there in

AAA and guys moving around. But yeah, I think that the two guys that are safe are Hoffman and Rodgers.

And then Varlin, Little and Garcia, I think as long as they're on the roster should have, they might

not be holds leaders, but they'll they'll be in the mix in the seventh, sixth inning of games,

if not the eighth. So I still like those guys. Varlin, Garcia and Little, but yeah, it's going to be

probably a little bit inconsistent as far as holds go. Yeah, yeah. And even saves you never know.

I'm Hoffman really struggled last year at some points, but we're really banking on the

underlying metrics pointing to what we can expect from Hoffman because you're really unlucky in

the home run department. Yeah, he said he's going to throw his breaking ball more this year.

Okay, that works. That's probably the first place to start. So that makes sense.

All right. Well, that's the American League East. Next we'll jump into the American League

Central here on our bullpen preview, but first we're going to take another break here on in the pen.

Whether you're into unsolved mysteries, solved mysteries, or creating your own mysteries,

Amazon Music's got millions of podcast episodes waiting. Just download the Amazon Music app and

start listening to your favorite podcasts ad free, included with Prime. And we're back Jay Crumpler

here with Rick Graham discussing relievers. We are doing our American League bullpen preview right now.

We just wrapped up the AL East and we're entering the AL Central. We'll start with the Chicago

White Sox who have added to their bullpen with a few pretty high upside arms in the names of

Saranthani Dominguez, Sean Newcombe, and Jordan Hicks that adds to a young core that was starting to

emerge last year, namely Jordan Leisure, who was prime to be the closer heading into 2026, but it

looks like Dominguez is going to take that role as well as Grant Taylor who emerged as sort of that

third guy in line of like the sale crochet trilogy of like guys with undeniable talent. It's just

about keeping them on the field and the White Sox have felt comfortable starting guys in the bullpen

and then moving them into the rotation. Taylor is going to stick in the bullpen here, but there is

so much upside here. I guess the question is do you think somebody emerges as strong enough to

just force the White Sox hands in terms of like replacing Dominguez as the closer. It can

Taylor be good enough or Leisure be good enough or even Sean Newcombe show enough that they force

the White Sox to take Saranthani out of the role. Yeah, I mean it's interesting. I think

they're still trying Newcombe out as a starter, possibly Mike Vassel still, but there is a little bit

of a yeah, there's a you know, I mean I guess Eric Feddy is going to get the fifth starter role

so that moves Newcombe into the bullpen. I think yeah Grant Taylor should be

I don't know, I kind of wish that they would just move to consider him a reliever because I think

that's I mean probably his best role. I know they don't want to give up on him to be a starter,

but in spring so far and I know his last out and he went more than one inning, but he's been

kind of working just one inning outings, which is surprising considering that they wanted him to

be more of a multi inning reliever, but maybe they're just slow playing it, but either way I think

Taylor's stuff is just it's so it's so crazy. It's so much better than Leisure, it's better than

Seranth and Dominguez. I don't know it's not Mason Miller-esque, but it's like you know that's

like the comp I'll give just because it's you know this guy who we don't know if he's a starter or

reliever yet, but like just stuff wise and he's the best option in that bullpen. So I do think yeah

Seranth and Dominguez struggles early on and if Leisure is not I mean we've only really seen one

good half of a season from Leisure, so I'm not like totally sold on him yet. So if Dominguez and

Leisure aren't pitching well in the first half and like Taylor's just striking everyone out, I don't

know like what point did the white slush just go you know what this is probably our closer the

future here. So let's just you know let's let's make this happen because that's it's really the only

guy I mean I'm not totally out on Seranth and Dominguez or Leisure necessarily, but like Taylor's

the guy I have interested in this bullpen more than anyone else since not that close. So I'm just

hoping that yeah he can settle in and even if even if and I've seen he's going early in drafts

for for a reason and I totally get it because even if he's not closing out games, he's going to

potentially give you 90 do 90 do 100 innings and like that's a ton of strikeouts.

Probably a handful of wins, handful of saves as well and hopefully he boosts your ratios as

well because he shouldn't be getting hit around like he did last year. Last year was really

ton of bad luck, bad a ball luck from him. So don't look at his ratios from last year. Just look

at the swing and miss stuff. It's it's off the charts. A lot of strikeouts for Grant Taylor and

definitely the guy to watch here, but there's certainly an outcome where you have everybody having

their best season again and Sean Newcombe repeats what he did last year. Jordan Hicks figures out

what he's doing. Yeah, Mike Vassel was really good last year. 101 innings out of the bullpen too.

And Jordan Leisure, like you said, figured it out in the second half last year. So there's certainly

situation where the white socks give you some confidence in their bullpen. I don't think the rest

of the roster is sort of primed for this team to like make a surprise run at the postseason, but

this would give them something to build off of heading into 2027. So some exciting names

in that white socks bullpen most notably Grant Taylor. Let's go over to the Cleveland Guardians.

Next is a bullpen that's always successful somewhat quietly so, but also they just rely so heavily

on a few arms. Last year we saw Cade Smith and Hunter Gattis be those guys. Klossay has been

for a while the guy that they've relied on, but it looks like his pitching career might be

over not that he's going to come back as a hitter, but I think he's just done in baseball. He's

probably going to be behind bars or something like that, but not great for the Guardians. However,

they do have Cade Smith who's like, if you want to say like best case scenario for your closer to

go to jail and have some guy step right right into that role. Cade Smith's like the top guy you

would pick. I mean, for the past couple of years, we talked endlessly about how good he is,

what he could do as a closer from the day that he started pitching in the major. So now we'll see

a full season of Cade Smith as the closer the question is, can he handle the workload? We've

seen him do it for the last two years, but that's got to start weighing on him. Do you have concerns

about Cade Smith handling a third season of a Cleveland Guardians relievers workload?

Yeah, that's, I mean, we talked about Gabbas as well. Those two guys have been heavily worked

the last two years. And again, this year, that's probably the hope. I mean, it's a really deep

bullpen. It's a really good bullpen. They probably don't need to. They could probably give those

guys a little bit more time off in between outings. But yeah, that's my only real concern with

Cade Smith or Gattis, I guess, is just the workload catching up to them, just fatigue and stuff

diminishing and eventually health problems and injury issues. But I'm not going to fade

Cade Smith for that purpose. Again, he's in that top tier closes. If you like the other six

better, I understand if you use your seventh guy. But yeah, I think, yeah, this bullpen is,

I mean, the guys like Connor Braug didn't call an older man. The spring look really good as well.

It's just like, they always, the Guardians pitching lab or whatever it is, whatever you want to

call it. They just, they turn out relievers. One of those teams, you know, we talk about the

rumors or the race. It's just these certain teams just know where to find and how to like, you know,

turn out really good relievers. So, you know, Sean Armstrong's a nice addition to them for

them as well. And Sbrowski's awesome from the left side. I just, yeah, really, really fun

bullpen who, but like we talked about at the beginning of Gattis, if they do lose Smith and

Gattis at the same time, then that's an issue. If they lose one, if they only lose one, I think they'll

be okay, but they can't lose both. Those two guys are too, too important. Right. It really falls

apart after those two guys. And I guess they're banking on somebody like Sean Armstrong who has

shown stability and stamina over the past couple of years, the ability to pitch in a lot of games.

I guess they're going to be relying on him to sort of be that glue guy in that bullpen.

Let's move over to the Detroit Tigers who added Kenley Jansen to the roster this offseason.

They also returned Kyle Finnegan after acquiring him at last year's trade deadline.

The question here is, how do you think they're going to use this bullpen? I think it makes sense

for Kenley Jansen to be the closer with Vest and Finnegan setting up, but it's sort of confusing

right now. Given Finnegan was a closer for the Nationals for a while and Vest was the closer before

that, and there was some splitting of the role last year. But with Jansen in there, it's like,

you don't really want to mount side of the ninth inning. So Rick, how do you project the Tigers

bullpen being utilized in 2026? Yeah, I think I know there's been some talk about them still going

somewhat of a committee approach, but it's, I think it's going to be Jansen's job to lose first

and foremost. I think more often than not, Jansen's going to be in the ninth outside of some weird

matchup situations, which I can't even think of at the top of my head because Finnegan

and Vest are also right-handed. Yeah, I think Finnegan is like a guy who relies on a splitter,

though. This doesn't say the splitter, so he's more, I guess if you have like a left-handed,

I want to say his splits weren't great against lefties, though, but I don't know. I'd have to look

into that. But either way, Jansen with his cutter running that into lefties is always tough as well,

so yeah, I think, for now, I think we just, we've seen AJ Hinch never really have a bullpen

where he's had a really number one lockdown closer, like he has now with Jansen, so I think

given the personnel, I think we'll see more of a steady, you know, Jansen in the ninth,

Finnegan in the eighth, Vest before that type scenario with Tyler Holton being the lefty.

And that's a really good four, that's a really good group of four there, but if, again, if they

lose one of them, it does get a little bit more, more dicey with, you know, Hanuffy and Herder

or fine, there's solid middle relief options, but there's no, no, no swinging miss upside with

those guys, so yeah, I mean, I like how, I like how things stack up for the Tigers right now

with the trio of Jansen Finnegan Invest and throw Holton in there if you want to,

but yeah, it's, it's, if you know Jansen misses some time, then it does shorten things there,

but I still think Finnegan is the top handcuffed to Jansen, if Jansen were to miss time.

I've been in the same boat as well in that opinion. The strikeouts have always been something that

this Tigers bullpen recently have been lacking. So I don't know, I could see something like,

you know, Troy Melton returns from injury and that rotation is still full, which it looks like

it's going to be right now. That's a guy who I think would be really interesting out of the bullpen,

but I don't want to bank on it given that he's already going to start the year on the injured list,

but Troy Melton could be interesting, at least like, at the very least, adding that, that strike

out arm, that the Tigers bullpen sorely lacks. Another bullpen that lacks strikeouts has been the

Royals bullpen. They have gotten by with their ballpark and their defense and just pitching it

to contact and it worked the last two years, but with them changing the dimensions of the ballpark,

pulling the fences in, likely increasing the home run rates. I think both of us are very concerned

with how mostly Carlos's Devils is going to pitch in 2026, because this is a guy that already,

even without the changes to the ballpark, was projected to take a big step back in 2026 after

a 42 save season last year. So I guess how long does a steve as hold on to the role and who replaces

him? Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you can hang on to the role for the whole year. The big

question is who replaces him, because no one's really sticking out the spring as, I mean,

Ersig's stuff is still down. It's down more from last year. I was hoping he would get back to

where he was in 2024, but it's gone the other way. Same with Nick Mears. Again, like 2024,

like Rocky, it's a brewer, first year in Milwaukee. Nick Mears was awesome and his stuff has just

gone the wrong way. Alex Lang is not excited about Alex Lang. So yeah, I guess Matt Stromb,

probably, I know he's left-handed, but there's a veteran quality there and they do have Daniel Lynch

as well as Bailey Falter and Bullpen. So I'm starting to lean more Stromb than Ersig until I see

something from Ersig. You know, the hot name there is Luander Avila, who yeah, I get it. He

should be in the Bullpen. He should probably be a reliever, but it sounds like they still have

interest in potentially giving him a shot to start in AAA and maybe move into the rotation

at some point. But if he does, if Avila is a full-time reliever, that's definitely interesting.

He had a little cup of coffee last year and it was good out of the bullpen for them.

Yeah, I mean, it's like, you know, Stephen Cruz is kind of always intrigued me because his

stuff is crazy, but he's got an issue of throwing strikes. So yeah, it's, I don't know, the Bullpen

is not, there's really nothing exciting about this Bullpen. It can be fine. It used to be fine

because I think the ballpark factors and like a lot of guys, yeah, defense and like these guys

like give up a lot of contact and you have good defense and, you know, the park's huge, but now

the park it's not huge anymore and I don't know. We'll see how those home runs. I mean, Carlos

Estevez, we'll see. I don't think the Dominican, they didn't trust him last night. I don't know if

they'll trust him in the semi-finals or the quarterfinals either. I don't know how they can when

he's throwing 90s, just throwing meatballs right now. And again, I thought like putting on that

Dominican jersey would help him like, you know, get amped up and yeah, it has not. So I mean,

that's like for me, Estevez is one of the clearest like bus candidates I've ever seen. Just,

we're already off of him just considering the underlying metrics. And now with the ballpark

change, yeah, I said very little faith in that, but it's as you went through there, it's not really

a clear option to replace him. So I think I'm putting my eggs in the earseg and strong baskets,

but I definitely don't want to be heavily invested into this bullpen, but this is one where you could

come out with some very positive fantasy results if you stay invested and stay focused,

which if you're looking to stay tapped into this bullpen all year long, definitely,

continue to listen to the In the Penn podcast, because this is definitely one we'll be talking about.

To ramp up the AL Central, we have the Minnesota twins. They had, they enter the off season.

No, they enter the off season with just an awful collection of arms and it just did not

seem very inspiring. They added Taylor Rogers. They got Anthony Bonda after he was DFAed by the

twins and they added Andrew Chafon on a minor league deal. None of those guys are a really huge

difference makers. They are all lefty. So I think that does allow Rogers to open the season as

the closer because there's enough left handed support, especially with Cody Funderberg there,

but Rogers is not somebody that has really a high ceiling. The only ceiling we're talking about is

in the saves department where if he maintains that closer roll through the first half, you're getting

a pretty good handful of saves from Taylor Rogers. So I guess the first question is, what's your faith

in Taylor Rogers heading into the season? Do you think he can hold on to the roll until the trade

deadline be where he's inevitably going to be traded? And then after that, who steps up? Who's going

to be the closer? Because we saw last year, they just sold off the whole bullpen and there was just

nobody left standing. It was like Cole Sands and Justin Toba. And neither of those guys were

really inspiring. So how long these projections go ahead? These projections are pretty hilarious for

this, this twins bullpen on fan graphs. They're bad. No, no one's no one will know for war over 0.8.

No one with two guys with an ERA under four. No one will strike our rate over. And I don't know

how Taylor Rogers ends up with the highest caper nine projection on this list. That's, oh,

and she's how? I know. It's a very, again, there's there's a lot of bad bullpen this year. I feel like

more, I don't know why is like, there's just like between the twins, the nationals. We talked about

the depth on all the other rosters that probably has something to do with everybody's just hoarding

the relievers. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't, I don't like, I think the twins are hoping, really

hoping that Taylor Rogers can give them three good months in that role. And then they can sell him.

I like, I mean, I like Cole Sands a little bit, but it's, I don't know what his rep, he needs to

like figure out three or four good pitches because he's throwing like five or six right now. And

I don't know, I just, if you're going to be in the bullpen, like, let's hone, let's hone in on like three

or four, like above average pitches here. You know, Eric Orzies, the wild card there, I would love

to see him get a chance. As far as stuff goes, that's probably the best option here, not from the left

side, at least. You know, she like, all those lefties though, they're none of them are closures. They're

all, they're all like solid left hand to bullpen guys, but they shouldn't be closing at this point.

And neither suggesting Topo and probably not Cole Sands either. So yeah, I like Orzies a really,

really deep, you know, possible guy to finish the year as the clothes are there, but it's,

yeah, I would just try to avoid as much as possible. I mean, there's part of me because Taylor

Rogers just having that role and really not probably having any competition there. It's like,

okay, there's cheap saves, but there's also a chance he just gets, you know, shelled his first

couple outings and loses the role to Thunder Burke or Bandar or whatever. It's, that would probably

just try to avoid unless you're an A only and then maybe Rogers for cheap, but that's it.

All right. Yeah, not too inspiring here in the twins bullpen. I've read that like Conor Pre-Lip,

one of their top starting pitching prospects. Maybe somebody that could pitch out of the bullpen because

of his inability to stay healthy. He also doesn't throw a lot of strikes, but he's a South Foss

well and I doubt they'll thrust him right into the closer role, but I guess he's another name.

Good stuff. Yeah, I mean, stuff wise, that's, if you're going to put a lefty in the end of the

closer role, that's like the type of guy you probably want. So yeah, yeah. We'll see.

All right. That wraps up the AL Central. So let's close things out with the ALS starting with

the Sacramento Athletics. They have a very uncertain late innings group and the real question here

is going to be who's going to be the closer. They added Mark Liner Jr., they added Scott Barlow,

they're returning Justin Sterner and Hogan Harris, who factored into the late innings last year,

but none of these guys are, none of these guys stand out as the guy who's going to be the closer.

Who are you putting your money on to end the season with the most days for the ACE?

Oh, man. I was originally on team Sterner for a while.

And I still like Justin Sterner, but you know, I think it's just, I don't know if anyone's going to

get more than, more than 12 or 15 saves here. I think that's just going to be how it is. I mean,

I really want to say Elvis Elvarado, he's looked, he was electric in this world-based ball classic

for the Dominican, came in and bailed out Abner Rebay last night. Would have been easier if he didn't

throw ball in the center field on a routine double-play ball, but his stuff is great. I mean,

out of this bullpen, there's no one that comes close to his stuff. That said, he's probably not

going to open the year in the closer role. I mean, Hogan Harris has looked a lot better this spring,

and I thought Hogan Harris is kind of some mid-tier lefty, but I think there's more, I think there's

more there. I think he can be, if he's not, this is the thing. He's the only lefty in that bullpen

right now. So that pushes me off him being the closer. And I mean, the veterans like Lighter and

Barlow, and I guess he will play Michael Kelly and Ferguson in there. I just, those guys don't

intrigue me too much. So I guess for me, it's Stirner. To start the season in Elvarado to end the

season are kind of interesting. And Hogan Harris has some sort of lefty who probably is going to

be valuable and holds leagues this year at the very least. But again, maybe if they're saving him

for left-handed pockets, he could still get some saves in the ninth inning, depending on match-ups

and whatnot. So yeah, it's, I don't know, we'll see. It's a very interesting mix of relievers

there between the veterans and the younger guys. It's sort of just a lot of the same. And you see

that in the rotation too, where there's just so much of just, is this guy like Big Lee Caliber?

They've just struggled so much drafting starters, trading for starters. Yeah, you're going to have

so many starters factor in this bullpen as well. Yeah, hard-trolling guys like Jack Perkins.

Luis Morales, Jack Perkins, Luis Medina, guys that could be good in the bullpen. But you never know

if they're even going to get the opportunity. But there's so many guys that, I don't know,

there's also like Eduardo Nguñez, who is sort of a high upside reliever as well. So it's,

yeah, it's just a whole lot of like shrug. I don't know, like, is it even worth it paying attention

here? Obviously, we're going to be locked into it. But it's probably a situation I stay away from

in fantasy just because there's so much uncertainty. There's just nobody that really stands out.

And the guys that do like Alvarado are probably going to be passed over for guys with

less arbitration years is really the factor. Unfortunately, yeah, it's probably true. But I mean,

yeah, I mean, the two guys with the less service time, the least amount of service time are

the best, the highest upside arms in that bullpen, Sterner, and Alvarado. So hopefully,

they get a chance. What would they get a fair chance? Fingers crossed. Let's move over to the Houston

Astros where we talked about it. The top of the podcast, Hader is going to start the season on

the injured list. A brave should open the season as the closer he's going to be one of the top

relievers in baseball. There's plenty of south paws in this bullpen. That's really the strength of

the Astros relief core, talking about Brian King, Stephen Okert, Bennett Sousa to go along with

Josh Hader. The real question, like, who, what righty reliever is going to support Brian

de Breu, if he's the closer? I mean, right now, they're showing a Niel Dela Santos as the top

righty reliever. And after that, it's Rodriguez Munoz and his 818 ERA and Kiway Tang, who the

giants didn't even want with their terrible relief core. So I don't know, where are you seeing,

how you seeing the rights, the right-handed side of the Astros bullpen, figuring itself out in

2026? Yeah, I think this is another team that probably pulls from their relief or their starting

depth at some point to help out the righties in that bullpen. Maybe Blueba or, I mean,

I'm Miguel Ulola's, yeah, he's on the 40 man now. That's an interesting potential reliever.

Eric Getty, I mean, but he's probably going to be better as a starter, but if they moved,

I mean, yeah, they'll probably find someone from the rotation to move into the bullpen,

because yeah, just having Dela Santos and Breu as your only righties to really rely on is,

yeah, that's not great. Dela Santos is okay as like a middle-long relief guy, and Munoz,

they got an, you know, a Roll 5 for a guy who's got 90 career innings, they got them in the

Roll 5 draft, so probably says something about where he is at his career. But yeah, I mean,

the lefties are great, and Breu is great. It's just, yeah, you're right. It's finding that secondary

righty to kind of compliment the rest of that bullpen. Right, and I'm not sure if they have it,

but I think your, your pressure to suggest that they're going to pull from that starting rotation,

which I think is going to be a theme we see throughout the season, just because of how many

bullpen we've already discussed that have a lot of starting rotation depth and don't have the

best bullpen's and could use some help there. So it usually sorts itself out throughout the season.

The angels are a team that always seem to be struggling to find enough pitchers because of the

amount of injuries and struggles that they have on the mount. Right now, they have a ton of

high upside and very risky arms in that bullpen. So there's a lot of potential here.

There's also probably a much higher likelihood that it is a disaster, like right from the get-go,

but with names like Robert Stevenson, Kirby Yates, John Romano, you got some high upside

ridys that could really propel this bullpen. I don't know. It's like, the question is like,

do you have any faith in this bullpen figuring itself out? I mean, it seems like they're,

they've got enough guys that they could somehow have things go their way, but given how the angels

have performed in the past, I'm unlikely to have that kind of confidence.

Right. And it's like, if this was any other team like that could develop pitching, I'd be like,

all right, this could be interesting and fun, but it's the angels. So I feel just like bad about it.

I just feel like it's not going to end well for them.

The angels aren't going to be the team that turns around during a Romano's career, right? I don't

think so. Kirby Yates, like we already talked about him. He might be cooked. I don't know yet.

His spring has been very lackluster. Stuff doesn't look great. I mean, honestly, like, and I

think, again, we talk about the lefty situations and bullpen's and then bringing in Brent Souter

in February to give them a second lefty because I guess Drew Pomeran's going to be, I would not be

surprised if Pomeran's leads this team and saves just because of like availability and stability

reasons, like just being there and being healthy and which is weird to say about Drew Pomeran's

but I mean, last year he was very sturdy for the Cubs and yeah, I wonder if Pomeran just winds

up being the steady force or steady option back there. But yeah, obviously, I would love to see

Robert Stevenson be healthy. If he gets 60 endings, like these projections say, I would be thrilled

and I think we would get good good results from him. But man, it's just this bullpen is, it's like,

I guess if you want to take a really late flyer, it's okay, but I'm like the way Yates going inside

the top 300 some places or around pick 300, I'm just out on that. I'm going to wait till after

400 to take a shot at one of these guys. Yeah, I think if anything, there's going to be a fun

bullpen to sort of watch from afar. Well, we'll observe them from a distance because there's

enough names here that you can get excited, but you don't really don't want to get invested. I'm

excited to see Ben Joyce return, see how he looks after the torn labrum. We should get some more

of Jose Firmin and you know, plenty of names here, Ryan's effort John after his somewhat

impressive season last year. So a lot of names to watch. I think the angels bullpen is going to be,

it's almost like, I don't know, like a car crash or something. You know, it's going to be like bad,

but you're, you know, you can't take your eyes off of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Next,

we've got the Mariners bullpen, which has historically been one of the best and baseball last year.

It was incredible. And it took them all the way to the American League Championship series.

They've got like all the same guys as last year. And then they added Jose Ferrer, which is a huge

addition to this bullpen. I think very underratedly so, I think people that aren't really as tapped into,

you know, deeper league relievers don't really know how good Ferrer is and how unlucky he was last year,

one of the most unlucky relievers in baseball. And I think we both have faith that with this new

pitching development staff in Seattle after leaving the nationals, he should tap into the strikeout

potential that he's displayed. I guess we've got faith in Andres Munoz. Do you think this is going

to be one of the best bullpen and baseball again? Or do you think we see some sort of step back?

No, I mean, they should be the best bullpen and baseball. I think, you know,

brash being another year removed from Tommy John. He finally made a spring outing, I think,

yesterday and his fast balls up a little bit, which is great to see, especially in his first

spring outing. Seeing him back at 97 miles per hour consistently is awesome. So I think brash

can be even better this year. I think Jose Ferrer will be better in Seattle than he was in

Washington. Bizarro took a huge step forward towards the end of last year. You know, gave

Spire, I think everything that Spire did last year is repeatable. I think he's one of the best lefty's

left-handed relievers in the game. So yeah, yeah, this bullpen should be fine. And so far,

Andres Munoz is look great. He's look fine in the spring. His velocity is where it should be.

It's not down any further than it was last year. So I'm feeling better about Munoz

health-wise. So yeah, I mean, this bullpen, like their top six is probably the best,

you know, one through six as far as a bullpen goes and baseball. And they have AAA depth as well.

They have loads of guys on the 40 man and AAA that are upside as well.

Yeah, this is sort of like that one bullpen where you're not really concerned about it. It's really,

it's so well constructed that everybody's got clear roles. Everybody has had success in the past

and pitching in that ballpark with the pitching development staff that the Mariners had and just

have so much faith in it. And it's just, okay, yeah, Andres Munoz is going to be dope,

draft him, Matt Brash and Ferrer are going to be the top two set-up men. And then the rest of that

bullpen is just going to provide like really important and strong depth. So I, there's really not

many questions about the Mariners bullpen. It's just, you know, how like what heights can they,

can they achieve? And from a hold standpoint, it's like between like spare or spire and Ferrer.

They both are able to get a bunch of holds or like, you know, like, that's really the questions

like and in deeper holds leagues. That's like, you know, the front end is great.

They spread out some more. Yeah, but it's kind of like the Dodgers where, you know,

like between Vesia, Scott and Jack Dryer, like which one of those lefties, you know,

gets the most holds. Is there room for that secondary lefty to get 20 holds? Which typically

there is, especially on good teams. So I'm not too worried about it for holds leagues with Spire and

Ferrer. There's plenty of room for both of them to get holds.

All right. And lastly, we've got the Rangers bullpen. They are projected to have Robert Garcia

leading the group. And then the rest of it is sort of a bit of a shrug. We talked about Chris

Martin, like, nearing the end of his career, Cole win is somebody who is not going to have a 1.51

ERA again. And then from there, it's like who, who can we even expect to be in the bullpen? Not

even like who can we expect to have success who's even going to be pitching in it. I'd love to see

some of their starting pitching prospects get an opportunity in the bullpen. I think we've

talked a lot about Emiliano Teoto for a few years. Yeah. They're probably shifting him

straight to the bullpen now. Somebody like Mark Church has shown potential in the past. They

got Michelle Otonias from the A's last year. They also have Alexis DS waiting in the wings.

And I don't know, maybe Kumar Rocker gets a chance in that bullpen, but it really feels like

they're sort of winging it. Like they're just, okay, we got some guys. Not really sure

who's it going to be. But outside of Robert Garcia and Chris Martin, it's just how do you see this

shaken out? Yeah. Rocker is an interesting one. That's when we, when I did the, I did a bullpen

panel last week with Greg Jewett and Doug Dennis for first pitch Florida baseball HQ. And yeah,

Greg, Greg Rod up rocker as a name there. And it makes sense. He's not working out as a starter.

I don't know. There's the whole thing of rocker and his fastball is just not great despite

the velocity, but maybe an all uptick and velocity will outweigh the bad shape on the fastball.

So maybe a bullpen rule. I kind of come compared him. Maybe it's like a Michael Koepek type transition

where that's the best place for him. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, I like Robert Garcia. He's not

a closer to me. He's a solid left handed reliever, but in this situation, it's, yeah, he's clearly

the only guy I would trust, especially with that thing about Chris Martin, not being exactly healthy.

And Josh spores is not like I saw he's not look good this spring. I don't think he makes the roster.

Yeah, Cole wins projections are terrible, which as they should be, he was very lucky last year.

And then you're, then it's Carter Braumler, Jalen Beakson, Tyler Alexander. It's not good.

I really want them to sort of introduce that, that next wave of relievers because it does feel like

they have some guys waiting in the, in the wings that are a bit exciting, but are they going to give

those guys the opportunity? They got to be healthy first. I think if those guys get healthy,

and there's throwing strikes in triple A, we'll see them quickly. But yeah, there's,

there's, there's, I guess some hope in triple A with Toyota, church, and even Luis Carvalo's

interesting in Otonia's. But yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be an interesting goal.

Again, this, this, this is another one of those bullpens that we'll be watching. Similar to the A's,

it's not, you know, we'll be watching, especially even if Garcia is the closer, just,

whatever happens behind him, I have no idea at this point. So seeing who takes over that seventh,

eighth, and enroll will be interesting to watch. Right. Yeah. Well, that is the American league. We

are sort of prepped for the regular season now with the American League. And next week will be our

last offseason podcast. We will preview the National League with the same sort of format of

asking questions about each National League bullpen. And that will sort of set us up to begin

the 2026 season. It's really starting to arrive very quickly. So drafts are starting to wrap up.

I'm sure I'm on the clock somewhere right now with all the slow drafts going on. We've got our

home league draft next Friday. So better be prepared for that. Rick. Rick has not been winning

that. I'm going to have a different approach this year that I want. Good idea. You'll see.

All right. All right. I like that you're thinking about it. All right. But that will cover the American

League bullpens. So Rick, why don't you go ahead and plug your socials and let everybody know

what you're working on as we wrap up the offseason. Yeah. You can find me on social media. I'm

Rick Graham. I am as of the day this podcast comes out. I'm hoping to have my save plus hold update

out there as well as closer update. And then next week there'll be one more update. And then

it's the season regular seasons here. So yeah, two more updates and we're going. We're going.

All right. Yeah. It's really it's really speed enough. It's like the train is leaving the

station right now. You can follow me on socials at Jake Crumpler. You can follow the pod at

in the pen pod. You can find all of my work at CrumplerBaseball.com. I also do some playing time

analysis over at baseball HQ. I am pushing very hard to have my top 100 starting pitching article

out next weekend. I am on the clock now and TZFBI just happened. Nice.

But yeah, so look forward for that top 100 starting pitching article. I like, you know,

the point in this in the offseason that it's coming out. I don't think anybody's using that for

like their analysis for their drafts and stuff. But you know, I didn't expect anybody to use it

anyway. But looking to have a lot of work to do on starting pictures throughout this season. And

hopefully we get the first pitch podcast up and running very shortly as well. So stay tuned for

all of that. You can find all of our work over at pitcherless.com. Make sure to sign up for

PL plus or PL pros. You can get access to all the incredible tools we have, especially for draft

season. But there's so much more that you can get access to during the season and Kyle and the

rest of the team are always cooking up brand new stuff, brand new stats, brand new tools. I can help

you throughout the season. So definitely sign up for those things. You also get access to the

discord. So you can privately message me and Rick and ask us all of, you know, questions you

want about our personal lives. Because I know that's what everybody's interested in when they

listen to this podcast. But that will do this for do it for this episode number 151 of the

in the pen podcast. We'll talk to you all next week.

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