Going into the 2020 season, the bullpen appeared to be the Pirates’ strength. There were questions surrounding the rotation, but the general belief was that if they could get a lead, they would protect it.
Overall, the relievers finished with a near league average 4.62 ERA and 1.5 fWAR, which while far from the expectation, was respectable given the abundance of injuries the unit suffered. Originally, Keone Kela was the closer and Nick Burdi and Kyle Crick were his set-up men. All three missed almost the entire season. As for middle relief, Michael Feliz and Clay Holmes were both shut down for the year with forearm injuries early.
With the exception of Richard Rodriguez, who was healthy the entire season, the backend of the bullpen was completely different than expected. Geoff Hartlieb, Chris Stratton and Sam Howard were thrust into late-inning roles, and for the most part, performed well.
Manager Derek Shelton had to do a lot of mixing and matching out of the bullpen as the year went on. Most of it was out of necessity rather than by design. Naturally, the bullpen will be replenished, both through players returning from injuries and outside additions, though it might not be a splashy addition.
“Going back to last offseason, [we focused on] adding controllable bullpen depth, taking a chance on some arms that we think have a chance to continue to develop and get better and be part of a good bullpen,” Ben Cherington said during a Zoom call Monday. “We need to continue to do that even into next year. Give ourselves as many options as we can. I’d expect we’d continue to look for those kinds of opportunities.
“[That] doesn’t mean we wouldn’t venture into free agency in the bullpen. We may. We’ll stay open to that. But ultimately we just want to give Shelty and [pitching coach] Oscar [Marin] as many good options as possible.”
It’s one thing to find good options. It’s tougher to find good late inning options.
Right now, there is no clear closer for the Pirates. Kela is a free agent and Burdi was designated for assignment last week after he underwent Tommy John surgery, which will prevent him from pitching in 2021. Cherington sounded hopeful that the Pirates and Burdi could reunite. A minor-league contract would make sense for both sides.
At one point Crick looked like a potential future closer, but has struggled the past two seasons. His velocity also noticeably dipped in his limited use this year.
There is still Rodriguez, who finished with a 2.70 ERA and four saves in five attempts in his first look as a closer. He could return to the role in 2021, but his affordable contract, years of team control and good results make him an appealing trade candidate this winter.
Rodriguez led the team with 13 innings pitched in the ninth inning or in extra innings last year. Among players who are still on the roster, Howard and prospect Nick Mears are the only returning pitchers who pitched at least two innings all season in those frames.
Mears and fellow prospect Blake Cederlind could very well be late-inning relievers or closer in the future, but not for the start of 2021. Holmes and Feliz’s recovery has gone well, and Cherington believes that “from a health perspective, we don’t have any reason to believe they won’t be ready to go.” From a pure stuff perspective, both could succeed under Marin’s tutelage, but neither has earned a high leverage role in the majors at this point of their careers.
That could open the door for a free agent addition, but one of Shelton and Cherington’s themes for this past season was giving players different opportunities to prove themselves. It would make sense for that to continue into next year. That could mean having someone already on the roster step up, or picking up a reliever who might not have much experience in a late-inning role.
“Closers can appear out of nowhere sometimes,” Cherington said. “I would think about it as who has the ability to pitch in leverage situations. I do think we have some guys on our team who are capable of doing that, some guys who have already done that. Richard Rodriguez did a really good job this year of pitching in leverage situations, including in the ninth inning a little bit as we got deeper into the season. He performed really well in those situations. Then we can also see other guys in our current mix who have the kind of talent and stuff upside to be able to do that and maybe just haven’t had as much time in the major leagues and need some more experience.”
In the grand scheme of things, the bullpen is just one area in which the Pirates will need to improve going forward. Most of that improvement will have to be internal, especially at this stage of the Pirates’ build towards the future.
“We’ve got guys who need to continue to get better this offseason,” Cherington said. “[We] went into an offseason with some clear objectives and are already getting after it. [The bullpen] will be an important part of it, too.”