Bullpen dominoes
Feliz’s woes led to overuse of everyone else in relief corps
Unlike most things in life, bullpens are built and designed to function from the back to the front.
In other words, you identify your closer and everyone else eventually falls into slots ahead of him. If you can’t cover the ninth inning, it really doesn’t matter if the relievers who work beforehand excel or not.
Over the off-season, the Brewers’ brain trust decided they had better sign an experienced reliever with closing experience. After trading Jeremy Jeffress on Aug. 1 and his replacement, Tyler Thornburg, during the winter meetings, there was no one left with closing experience at the major-league level.
On a relief market with many options, the Brewers identified Neftali Feliz as their man, and it made a lot of sense. He had not yet turned 29, was coming off a solid year as a setup man in Pittsburgh and began his career as an effective closer in Texas, though his failure to finish off St. Louis in the 2011 World Series lives in infamy among Rangers fans.
There was one red flag on Feliz’s 2016 resume — he allowed 10 home runs in 53 2⁄3 innings despite pitching half the time in spacious PNC Park. Well aware that the ball flies in Miller Park, the Brewers acknowledged that shortcoming but didn’t think it would be a major issue.
Well, it was. Simply put, Feliz couldn’t keep the ball in the park, allowing an alarming eight home runs in 27 innings before the Brewers cut ties with him Wednesday by designating him for assignment. He was 8-for-9 in converting saves but mostly horrible in all other situations, and enough was enough.
With a payroll shy of $60 million, second lowest in the majors, the Brewers didn’t spend much money over the winter. They made an exception with Feliz, giving him a $5.35 million deal with incentives should he flourish as the closer. At the least, they figured they could flip him at the trade deadline for prospects, as with Jeffress last season.
Such deals usually give a player a longer leash, particularly with clubs that are rebuilding rather than in winnow mode. So, the Brewers are to be commended for eating the money and turning Feliz loose in a step toward fixing a battered bullpen.
“Anytime you make an acquisition, regardless of whether it’s a trade or free agent signing, and it doesn’t work out, there is certainly disappointment,” general manager David Stearns said. “But, at this point in the season, it’s our job to make the best moves in the interests of the team.”
Which begs the question: Would the Brewers have cut ties with Feliz during the first half if they were foundering in the NL Central as many expected? Thanks to a better than expected start and awful showings by projected division powers Chicago and St. Louis, the Brewers have spent a good portion of the season in first place.
“I don’t know. I really don’t,” Stearns answered honestly. “All we can do is evaluate the situation, given where we are. We are in a position where the team is competitive. Given that situation, we thought this was the best move.
“It wasn’t for lack of effort on Neffy’s part or our coaches’ part. Everyone worked hard to try to make this work, to try to make adjustments, to try to get things going on the right track. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.”
When Feliz forfeited the closer’s role earlier in the season, it forced manager Craig Counsell to shift roles among his relief corps. Corey Knebel, who has an electric fastball and was destined for ninth-inning duty at some point, replaced Feliz. Jacob Barnes, another hard thrower, became the eighth-inning man, with veteran Carlos Torres pitching ahead of him.
Others, including Jared Hughes and Oliver Drake, filled in the other innings. Counsell did not have a lefty in the bullpen for most of the season — prospect Josh Hader is now up — so he didn’t have to worry about matchups there.
It was all hands on deck from the outset of the season as the starting rotation had trouble going deep into games as a group. Counsell was regularly covering four innings or thereabouts out of his bullpen, and eventually you must pay for such heavy usage.
As should have been expected, the relief corps began to fray around the edges under that workload. It all started after a 6-3 victory May 19 in Chicago, when the bullpen turned in five shutout innings on a miserable, rainy day behind spot starter Paolo Espino.
Over the next 24 games, the relief corps was roughed up for 84 hits and 58 earned runs in 80 23⁄ innings (6.47 ERA). A patchwork bullpen put an end to that downward spiral with four hitless innings Thursday in a 7-6 victory in St. Louis. On Friday, the relievers did mostly solid work in a 6-5, 10-inning victory over San Diego.
Despite improvement by the starters in going deeper into games over the last month or so, the bullpen had covered 249 2⁄3 innings entering Saturday, second most in the majors. Its collective 4.40 ERA ranked 19th among the 30 clubs.
Barnes (first with 36), Torres (35) and Knebel (35) ranked among the top five relievers in the National League in appearances. Torres, the oldest pitcher in the bullpen at 34, showed signs of wear over a seven-appearance stretch from May 30 to June 11, allowing 16 hits and 10 earned runs over 6 1/3 innings, ballooning his ERA from 2.67 to 4.86. He later bounced back with two scoreless outings, and the Brewers hope he is back on track.
You cannot continue to pile this number of appearances on a bullpen without suffering consequences. Yes, it’s nice that the Brewers unexpectedly have been in so many close games, but you eventually pay the piper. The Brewers hoped to make a reliever out of failed starter Wily Peralta but thus far he has been unable to make the adjustment (8.53 ERA, 1.895 WHIP).
“It’s something we’re monitoring and are aware of,” Stearns said. “We give our guys appropriate rest but we’re also aware the volume to this point of the season is high.
“As we look at the team, we really think everything is interrelated. The bullpen naturally has been getting some attention, and we’ve asked a lot of our bullpen, and not just the guys at the back end. We’ve asked a lot of all the guys down there.
“That goes back to the starting pitching and the offense, and run prevention as a whole on defense. If you look at the outings in general and some of the losses the bullpen has had, some are from poor performance from the bullpen but some are because we perhaps failed to extend the lead or made a defensive miscue.
“So, the team is all interrelated and different segments of the team can contribute to successes or failures of the other segments. We've seen that to some extent with the bullpen. As our defense has improved and our starting pitching goes late into games, I think that will help the bullpen going forward.”
Otherwise, the Brewers’ relievers are going to have their tongues hanging out during the second half. The Feliz experiment was a failure but other alternatives must be explored at some point.