Short season may mean busy bullpen
To make it through a six-month season, a high-leverage reliever like the Diamondbacks’ Archie Bradley often has to keep September in mind when he is pitching in April and May. He must be sure his battery life isn’t dipping into the red at a time when games matter most.
But, as with so much else this year, the equation for the upcoming 60-game season seems to have shifted for relievers, raising questions for both pitchers and managers alike. Two such questions are intertwined: Can more be asked of relievers? And should more be asked, especially in a year in which each game is 2 1/2 times more important?
“That’s a really good question,” Bradley said. “I think that’s the biggest question for myself, (Andrew) Chafin, (Hector) Rondon and really the whole bullpen. What is realistic for us to expect? What is the number of games we can expect to throw in/want to throw in/can our bodies handle?”
The answer, for Bradley, at least, is more – although precisely how many more games remains to be seen. But it is something he already has expressed to Diamondbacks pitching coach Matt Herges, and it is a concept that Herges said he has talked about with the rest of the club’s relief staff.
“Archie told us, he said, ‘Listen, I want you to know that I’ll be ready to pitch in, at the very least, half of these games,’” Herges said.
“We told these pitchers, ‘We’re going to lean on you heavier than you’ve probably ever been leaned on,’” Herges said. “Trust us. We’ll be smart with it. We won’t be reckless. But this is something where we’re going to need flexibility, where we’ll need an attitude of whatever it takes. I promise you, just like we’re taking precautions with COVID, we’re going to take precautions with these guys’ arms.”
The Diamondbacks are likely no different than most teams in their incorporation of training and analytics staff recommendations into pitchers’ workloads. Herges said he communicates daily with analyst Patrick Sellas on a target pitch count for every pitcher. He said the club wants to be as certain as possible not just that pitchers are in position to pitch well this year but that their health in future seasons isn’t being jeopardized.
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo sounded willing to change his reliever usage – but perhaps only a little. He said there could be instances when he would go to one of his setup men even when trailing – there would be times, he said, to go to his best relievers to keep a onerun deficit at just one run – but he didn’t want to the other pitchers in his bullpen, whom he knows he will need at some point, to get the wrong idea.
“I’m not sure what the answer is,” Lovullo said. “I just know if you go to your leverage guys too much … it sends a message to them that they’re the only trusted guys.”
But if a reliever doesn’t need to worry so much about conserving bullets – and if a team is incentivized in a shorter season, with each game carrying more weight – it does seem within reason for them to pitch more than normal. Or, at least, that is where Bradley says he has landed with his thinking.
“When you talk about it in, hey, a short, two-month stint and then one month for the playoffs,” Bradley said, “I feel like because we (would not have) had the use and the leverage and everything that’s going on with our bodies (over a long season), we’ve technically only been working out and getting ready, I do think there will be a bigger window for us to push ourselves past what we would normally do.”
Bradley says pitching in half the games wouldn’t be all that difficult in a vacuum. Pitch in a game, take the next day off, pitch, day off. But the existence of a closer is not that simple. Save situations could arise in four out of five days or he could go eight days without one.
The Diamondbacks are hoping this thought exercise turns out to be just that. That is, they would love to have a variety of trustworthy relief options, enough that they don’t have to ask too much of any one or two guys. That is always the bullpen ideal; it rarely turns out that way.
With Bradley, Rondon, Chafin, Kevin Ginkel, Yoan Lopez and Junior Guerra, the club has six options with either the stuff or the track record to pitch late in games. They have another in Stefan Crichton who quickly earned Lovullo’s trust last season.
“The stuff is there; it’s for sure there,” Herges said. “Now it’s just about executing. Who can execute day in and day out. Me and (bullpen coach Mike Fetters), we were both bullpen pitchers. We’re comfortable with these guys. We love the way they go about it, the way they prepare. It’s going to come down to executing.”
Short hops
Lopez, who missed the final days of camp for unspecified reasons and did not accompany the team for its series against the Dodgers, threw a simulated inning on Tuesday at Chase Field, Lovullo said.
First baseman Christian Walker (groin) took several at-bats at Chase Field, though he did not run the bases, while first baseman Kevin Cron (hamstring) took multiple at-bats during the Diamondbacks’ workout in Anaheim.
Lovullo said he expects all three to be ready for Friday’s opener.
Lovullo said Walker, Lopez, Robbie Ray and Madison Bumgarner, all of whom remained in Phoenix rather than coming to Los Angeles, were scheduled to drive separately to San Diego.
Right-hander Zac Gallen threw 7580 pitches in a sim game at Angel Stadium. He is scheduled to start the third game of the season on Sunday against the Padres.