sweet relief

Examining the art and agony of building a championship-caliber bullpen

Astros Ryan Pressly, Josh Hader, Bryan Abreu
The Astros have heavily invested in their bullpen in recent years. Composite Getty Image.

For a World Series that was supposed to feature an epic battle between sluggers Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, guys like Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver, Alex Vesia and Anthony Banda sure got a lot of face time.

This year's Fall Classic provided further proof that a great bullpen is essential in baseball, particularly in the postseason. It also has led to concerns from people ranging from superagent Scott Boras to players' association head Tony Clark that the sport is abusing arms.

Regardless, building a quality bullpen remains a challenge.

“You need so many arms over the course of the season, and in the postseason, it’s even more magnified,” Los Angeles Angels general manager Perry Minasian said. “Quality arms, quality strikes. But quantity is a big deal, too. Where do you get it?”

The bullpen is usually an afterthought for casual baseball fans, particularly middle relievers, who don't get the spotlight of the ninth inning. They toil in relative anonymity while getting tough outs in tough situations and are much like NFL offensive linemen — noticed only when something goes terribly wrong.

The Dodgers used Vesia, Banda and Michael Kopech in four out of the five games of the World Series while Blake Treinen and Brusdar Graterol appeared in three games. They combined to throw 15 1/3 innings — often in high-leverage situations — and gave up five runs.

That's a 2.93 ERA.

For a bunch of guys only serious seamheads know, that's not too shabby.

“I have a lot of good players, and they understand that it’s about getting 27 outs a night,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It could be anyone at any given moment.”

Building a big league bullpen is intriguing because cost isn't really the prohibitive factor, making it arguably the most egalitarian position in a sport that doesn't have a salary cap. Banda ($740,000), Vesia ($1 million), Treinen ($1 million), Kopech ($3 million) and Graterol ($2.7 million) made pocket change compared with their teammate Ohtani, who signed a record $700 million, 10-year deal last offseason.

Instead, it comes down to scouting, development and sometimes dumb luck. It's sometimes more art than science.

“I wish we knew,” said Erik Neander, Tampa Bay's president of baseball operations. “We would have won more games last year.”

Boras is among those who aren’t pleased with the way relievers are being used. Clay Holmes pitched for the Yankees in all five games of the World Series and there’s little doubt that pitchers — particularly relievers — are being pushed to exhaustion in October.

“We have got to stop burning up our beautiful young arms by pitching them in a way, in a manner, that we would never do during the (regular) season,” Boras said Wednesday.

Over the past 10 years, the average fastball velocity has risen from 93.3 mph to 95.5 during the 2024 regular season. Injury rates also have skyrocketed, with 484 pitchers going on the injured list this year, nearly double the 2014 total.

Regardless of how GMs feel about bullpen usage, the injury explosion is one more reason that finding consistent relievers is a difficult task.

Using valuable young arms in the bullpen is risky, but pursuing veteran relievers in free agency is also a crapshoot. Take the case of Treinen, a 36-year-old who has had a career that typifies the ups and downs of being a reliever.

He was an All-Star in 2018 with the Oakland Athletics, with a microscopic 0.78 ERA and 100 strikeouts over 80 1/3 innings. The next year, he fell off drastically with a 4.91 ERA.

The Dodgers thought he could bounce back in 2020 and they were right — he had a solid season and helped lead LA to a World Series title. It went so well that the Dodgers signed him to a two-year deal after the season. He was great again in 2021 but suffered a serious shoulder injury and missed almost the entire 2022 season.

He signed an extension but missed the 2023 season with the same shoulder injury and didn't return until 2024, when he bounced back again with a 1.93 ERA and another championship.

Now Treinen is back on the market.

“You can look at it multiple ways,” said Minasian, who was speaking generally and not about Treinen. “You might say: 'Wow, he's taken the ball a ton. He's been used drastically over the last three, four years, so I'm not sure what it's going to look like going forward,' or it could be: ‘Hey, he’s held up. He pitches. He's been consistent and takes the ball.'”

Astros GM Dana Brown weighs in

The Houston Astros are a team that's had a great bullpen over the last several years with pitchers like Hector Neris and Ryan Pressly. General manager Dana Brown said there's always volatility in the bullpen, but that's not all due to injuries.

“It's just the game today,” Brown said. “You have all this information, and sometimes the hitters, they study you. The film — they look at it. They find your weak spots and try to exploit you.”

Brown said one quality he likes in relievers is a sense of humility, understanding that they might have to change their strategy on the mound as their body deals with a long career.

“The guys who don't have a teachable spirit, or the aptitude, they sometimes get lost in the sauce,” Brown said.

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Cam Smith continues to swing a hot bat! Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images.

The Houston Astros wrapped up yet another series win this week, this time taking two of three from the struggling Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Despite missing several key players and a bullpen that wasn’t fully available, the Astros continued their recent run of success, pushing their record to 52-35.

Manager Joe Espada appeared to be playing the long game in the rubber match on Thursday. After Houston rallied to tie the game in the seventh inning, Espada stuck with reliever Jordan Weems instead of turning to his high-leverage arms. That decision, while frustrating to some fans hoping for the sweep, underscored the team’s cautious approach to workload management as they navigate a long season.

One bright spot continues to be rookie Cam Smith, who delivered again in the clutch with a two-run triple in the seventh inning on Thursday. Smith has been Houston’s most dependable bat with runners on base and is quickly settling into the cleanup role—a rarity for a first-year player but one he’s earned with his poise and production.

 

Off the field, the biggest storyline continues to be Yordan Alvarez’s injury. After reports surfaced that the slugger had experienced a setback in his return from a fractured hand, the team clarified that the issue is inflammation, not the fracture itself. Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez received injections to address the irritation and is expected to rest for now. Encouragingly, the Astros say the fracture is no longer a concern, and while there’s still no definitive timeline for his return, the overall tone from the club was optimistic.

The transparency around Alvarez’s situation is part of a larger shift. After being criticized in recent seasons for vague injury updates, the Astros have begun issuing daily availability reports. It’s a move that signals the front office is trying to regain some trust with the media and fans after a stretch of frustrating ambiguity around player health.

Now, the Astros head to Los Angeles for a marquee matchup with the defending champion Dodgers. Friday’s opener will feature Lance McCullers Jr. making just his second start since returning from the injured list. McCullers gave up eight runs in his return against the Cubs and will be under the spotlight as he looks to settle back into form. Control will be the key, as walks have long been McCullers’ Achilles’ heel.

Saturday sets the stage for one of the most anticipated pitching matchups of the season: Framber Valdez versus Shohei Ohtani. With both teams fighting for positioning in their respective divisions, this weekend in LA should serve as a measuring stick—and perhaps a postseason preview.

There's so much more to get to! Don't miss the video below as we examine the topics above and much, much more!

The MLB season is finally upon us! Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday.

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