LOS ANGELES — It is part of the fabric of baseball, as we’ve written in This Space before, and in fact it might even qualify as one of the game’s unwritten rules: Every fan base hates its team’s bullpen sooner or later.
Yes, even the fans of The Team That Has (Almost) Everything.
Many of the Dodger fans who agonized over the inconsistency of Kenley Jansen over the past four seasons might be delighted to have him back right now. Jansen entered Monday with 28 saves for the Atlanta Braves, fourth in the National League, and is 5-0 with a 3.11 ERA and four blown saves.
His successor in Los Angeles, Craig Kimbrel, has inherited the mantle of the guy who has an entire region screaming, “Oh, no, not him,” when he comes out of the bullpen.
Kimbrel is 3-5 with a 4.36 ERA, 21 saves and four blown saves, the same number as Jansen. But this is the stat that has the populace screaming: In 46 appearances, he has had only nine in which he hasn’t given up at least a hit or a walk. He had one on Sunday, in finishing up a 10-3 victory over Miami, and it was his first clean inning since July 13, which would have been 15 outings ago.
This was not how this was supposed to go when they traded A.J. Pollock to the White Sox for Kimbrel, 34, during spring training. He’s seventh on the all-time saves list with 393 going into Monday, but this season suggests that his 5.09 ERA in the second half of the 2021 season wasn’t just a case of a longtime closer struggling to adapt to a setup role.
It has reached the stage where Manager Dave Roberts, while acknowledging Kimbrel’s track record in his 13 seasons, no longer seems averse to other options. On Sunday, he told reporters the priority would be getting Kimbrel regular work rather than saving him for ninth innings, meaning there will be opportunities for others in the ninth inning.
Closer tryouts, perhaps?
Evan Phillips, for one, has earned those opportunities. Phillips pitched a perfect ninth on Friday night to nail down a 2-1 victory over Miami, though Trayce Thompson’s glove in center field stole a potential game-tying home run. Phillips has allowed one run in 31 appearances (30 innings pitched) dating to May 29.
The bullpen, as a whole, has been quite good (although Phil Bickford’s messy ninth inning in Monday night’s 4-0 Milwaukee victory was an exception). More often than not, Kimbrel has been the outlier.
“It’s about performance,” Roberts said before Monday night’s game with Milwaukee. “He’s earned a longer leash. And so as we get into September, he’s got to show consistency, and that’s something that he understands as well.
“… I think at times he gets a little too reliant on the fastball, where guys start to time it up. And for me, at times, it looks like he’s chasing strikeouts instead of chasing outs. And I like pitchers that get outs and get them efficiently. So that’s basically what I’m looking for.”
Understand, the manager – and baseball ops boss Andrew Friedman and the research and development staff, who have significant input into these decisions – don’t look at this the same way the fan in the stands or in the easy chair at home might.
For the followers, every pitch is critical, every hit or walk is a potential crisis, and the ghosts of Octobers past are always lurking. For those most intimately involved – who happen to be sitting on a 17½-game division lead over San Diego and a 6½-game lead over the New York Mets for the best record in baseball – there is enough of a cushion to allow things to play out and determine the best way to attack this particular October.
And part of the equation involves shepherding a 13-man pitching staff (with reinforcements) through 162 games just to get to the most important time of the year.
“Number one, you’re always trying to put pitchers in the best position of success,” Roberts said. “Number two, which also could kind of be number one, is you want to manage their workload and their health. And so when you’re mindful of playing seven and a half months of baseball, you can’t rely on a couple of guys. You have to extend that trust circle and put guys in leverage spots and see what they have.”
And as was the case with Bickford in his 31-pitch ninth Monday night, a reliever who lets a game get out of hand sometimes just has to wear it, to save another pitcher who could be needed in the days to come.
Did we mention reinforcements, by the way? The bullpen is about to get deeper. Brusdar Graterol was activated on Monday and contributed a 1-2-3 eighth inning with two strikeouts. Roberts indicated Blake Treinen, out since April 22 with a shoulder injury, is looking at a Sept. 2 activation.
“It just raises the floor of talent and (adds) guys that we’ve used in the highest of leverage situations and the biggest spots of a season, the World Series,” Roberts said. “Both those guys have huge experience. They’ve come out the other side. I trust them.”
The only sure-fire way to earn the fans’ trust? Make sure your guy is the one on the mound when the last out of the season is recorded.
(And a memo to management: Last October should have been a lesson. Sometimes it’s better to be prudent, rather than trying to be the smartest guys in the room.)
jalexander@scng.com
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