MIAMI -- David Bednar, maybe Major League Baseball's preeminent closer, had plenty on his plate for a postgame meal at his clubhouse stall after the Pirates picked apart the Marlins, 7-2, on this Friday night at loanDepot park.
But the big boy's figurative plate stayed pretty much empty these past 48 hours.
"Just going through my routine, working to be ready," he'd tell me. "Available when needed."
When?
How about if?
I'm kidding, of course, but the franchise's first 2-0 start since 2018, modest as that might be, has been built mostly on a bullpen that's yet to have three of its back-end mainstays -- Bednar, Colin Holderman or Carmen Mlodzinski -- aboard, and yet still somehow has overwhelmed Miami batters both nights now:
• Innings: 11
• Hits: 4
• Extra-base hits: 0
• ERA: 0.82
• WHIP: 0.64
• Strikeouts: 9
• Walks: 3
And the one run allowed was a meaningless fielder's choice in the ninth inning of this one.
Crazy, right?
Well, statistics are only a slice of what's got everyone in this setting so stoked about this group that, in addition to being this team's glaringly obvious strength on individuals alone, comes with a collective component that they feel, and confidently so, will make it all the stronger.
Or, as Josh Fleming would tell me after his three-inning ElRoy Face-style save, "I think I saw that we were top three or something by MLB, and I think we're there for a reason. I think we should be No. 1."
He was referring to this tweet from Major League Baseball's official account a week ago, one which attributed the ranking to a FanGraphs analytical projection for bullpens as a whole:
Does your team have an elite bullpen? pic.twitter.com/Ea12iEUOYz
— MLB (@MLB) March 24, 2024
I'm out of the projection/prediction business myself, but I'm also in no position to argue. Not after an offseason that saw Ben Cherington, somewhat strikingly, invest almost all of his allotted free-agent budget on a one-year, $10.5 million contract for eternal flamethrower Aroldis Chapman. Not after a Grapefruit League schedule that saw eyebrow-raising results almost across the board.
And certainly not after these two showings.
I asked Derek Shelton if his bullpen might be even better than internally thought.
“I think it’s a good bullpen," he'd reply. "I think we did a really good job of acquiring people in the offseason to build the depth of it, and that’s really important because we’re going to need arms.”
I asked this of Shelton's closer, as well.
“I'm ecstatic. I can say that now," Bednar would tell me. "I think being able to work with these guys and see them in spring, coming into the year, I was already pumped up about it. And then, as everyone progressed through spring and obviously throughout the first two games, it’s been really cool to watch. Everybody is gelling together. We’ve got a really good group.”
It was then that I reminded Bednar of our talk in Bradenton early in the spring about why that collective component might matter most.
"I mean, you're seeing it already," he'd respond before I could complete the thought. "We're coming at you so many different ways. Different sides. Different styles. Different arm slots."
Different objectives, too, but I'll get to that in a bit.
From the sides/slots standpoint, the right-handers are Bednar, Holderman, Mlodzinski, Hunter Stratton, Ryder Ryan, Roansy Contreras once he's back from paternity leave, and Luis Ortiz for now, though I'd expect him in the rotation sooner rather than later. All are as different as can be in delivery, and that goes double for Holderman, whose stuff can come with such movement that it'll be jarring for his own catchers. Topping that, there are four left-handers as opposed to the old-school token one, in Chapman, Fleming, Ryan Borucki and Jose Hernandez, and they, too, have little in common with each other, let alone with the righties.
In this game, after a workmanlike start by offseason acquisition Martín Pérez -- one run over 4 1/3 innings despite six hits and three walks -- Ryan was summoned in the fifth with runners at the corners, one out and the lead still at three. And all he'd do is outduel Bryan De La Cruz through a nine-pitch at-bat by smoking through a swing a 94-mph sinker.
Then this ...
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) March 30, 2024
... a 95-mph four-seamer by Jazz Chisholm after he'd shown both batters nothing but sinkers and sliders to that stage.
Go press play again. Check, too, the tail that tugged Henry Davis' mitt across. Yowza.
“He came in and did exactly what he needed to do," Shelton would say of Ryan. "We brought him in to put the ball on the ground, and he ended up getting two punchouts. For a guy that’s only had one other big-league appearance, he looked pretty calm in a crucial spot.”
Ryan, 28, had that one other big-league appearance Aug. 11, 2023, as a member of the Mariners. He was one-inning-and-done. And yeah, he's got exactly the backstory one might imagine with that: After being drafted in the 30th and final round in 2016, he's logged seven seasons and 256 appearances in the minor leagues. Cherington liked the sinker, invited him back in December to spring training, the sinker hit new heights -- or depths, I suppose -- in that environment, and here he was credited with his first big-league W.
“Oh, man, it’s been great, the experience of a lifetime" Ryan would say, still looking a little glazed. "I’ve been working hard for this opportunity and it came, so I’m excited to get going.”
Fleming was summoned for the seventh and, with the lead having grown, Shelton hoped he'd be able to finish it out. Which he did, a night after a one-pitch-one-out cameo in the opener:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) March 30, 2024
"It was cool, yeah," he'd say. "I’ve come out of the bullpen before, but I’d never gone back-to-back, so that was the first time. I mean, I threw one pitch yesterday, so I kinda figured I was going to be hot tonight. I was ready for it.”
Fleming, 27, hasn't been as bus-bound as Ryan over his career, but his four years with the Rays saw him bounce back and forth between St. Petersburg and the minors, as well as between starting and relieving. Cherington signed him as a minor-league free agent, primarily for his sinker and seeking groundouts.
Perez, Ryan and Fleming would benefit from four double plays turned behind them, this after Mitch Keller and six relievers benefited from three double plays in the opener. With that, the Pirates became the first team in the majors since the 2007 Mets to turn three-plus in a season's first two games.
I asked Shelton to what extent double plays, or even just groundouts, might've been part of this bullpen plan.
“I think for some guys, yeah," he'd reply. "We’ve built the bullpen probably a little bit different than we have in the past, just because of the depth where we have guys who can get punchouts, and then there’s guys who we feel can effectively put the ball on the ground and get double plays.”
Right. The heat'll come from Bednar, who was cleared to return from his lat injury for this game but never was called to get up in the pen. It'll come from Holderman, who on this same night began a rehabilitation stint with Class AAA Indianapolis following a late-March illiness. It'll come from Mlodzinski, if/when he overcomes recent elbow pain. And it'll come, from not till the end of time, from the magical left arm of Chapman.
As Bednar worded it, "We've got a lot of guys who can throw nasty stuff.”
And the rest, seemingly by design, will throw the figurative curveball.
"We love it," Fleming would say. "We've got lots of different ways to come after you, different people even for different situations. We can be used to do what each of us does best."
Now, I'm not about to forecast fame and fortune for Ryan, for Fleming, for anyone other than those who've already found it. Few commodities are more fickle in professional sports than relievers. One team's trash is another's fireman. And vice versa.
Similarly, it's not like I'm about to publish the Central Division standings here ...
MLB.com
... OK, so I published the Central Division standings. Which was childish, even if I'm going to guess nobody looked away. But I'm not about to overstate starting out 2-0 for the first time since 2018, as there are only, oh, some 160 games to go.
I further won't belabor that the offense, while boosted by two hits each from Connor Joe, Ke'Bryan Hayes and Oneil Cruz, went 3 for 12 with runners in scoring position and struck out nine times. Or that the evening's pivotal factor was Miami starter A.J. Puk walking six of the 14 batters he'd see. Or that the defense and baserunning again were downers.
Every business, as I was taught forever ago, should build from its strengths. We're still in building season.
• Thanks for reading.
