MLB: The Top Five Worst Bullpens

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A great bullpen can be a major key to success in Major League Baseball. Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Lemon once said, “The two most important things in life are good friends and a strong bullpen.” Bob might have been on to something.

The five best bullpens in the league are all currently first and second place teams. For the most part, the same can not be said for teams with bad bullpens. Out of the ten worst pens, only two of them have a winning record: the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants. The remaining eight teams have a combined record of 166-258.

As for the bottom five, absolute worst pens in the game? The list isn’t all that surprising with the exception of one team. This team is in the middle of a pennant race and should probably address the issue if they’re serious about contending.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the five worst bullpens MLB currently has to offer.

Next: Minnesota

5. Minnesota Twins

2016 has really been a year to forget for the Minnesota Twins. Their 15-win mark on June 2 is good for dead last in all of baseball. While the team has played terribly in just about every facet of the game, bottom five in starting pitching and hitting, the bullpen has been an atrocity especially at the back end. Glen Perkins, Kevin Jepsen and Trevor May are all having disastrous years.

Perkins has pitched in two games, blew a save on April 10 and has been on the DL ever since. After a nice start for May, he finished up the month of May giving up 15 runs over a 22.1-inning stretch. Jensen is the closer by default and he’s given up multiple leads, which the Twins don’t get often, to go along with thirteen runs allowed in 18.1 innings.

It really is a dagger in the chest for Minnesota to have all three of these guys pitch this way because they had high hopes for all three coming into the season. All three did have their questions marks though.

“I’ve had to use these people that we’d like to think of in other roles,” manager Paul Molitor said. “It’s very rarely when we’ve used anybody in the setup role or a closing role. So I pretty much just have to get through games sometimes, which is not the way you want to manage a bullpen.”

Aside from the three headed travesty at the back of the pen, the rest of the relievers haven’t been good. Collectively, their bullpen is pitching to a 4.49 ERA which is good for fifth worst, and they’re being worn out. With 180 innings pitched, that puts them 13 above the MLB average. Batters are hitting a robust .281 average against them — MLB average is .243.

As if things couldn’t get any worse for Minnesota’s bullpen, Phil Hughes has been sent to the pen to try and get his mojo back. Instead of inflating the team starters’ ERA, Phil can now contribute to one of the worst pens in the game.

Next: Detroit

4. Detroit Tigers

The Tigers bullpen has not been abused like most bad bullpens, but maybe that’s because manager Brad Ausmus doesn’t trust them. The Tigers pen has only thrown 154.2 innings which is 15 fewer than the major league average. But when this unit gets the call, they get shelled. Opponents are hitting .285 off of them — that’s good for second worst in all of baseball.

Their 7.39 K/9 is well below the league average of 8.69. Their ERA as a group is fourth highest in the league at 4.74. They are also 27th in OPS allowed. Despite the Spring Training chatter that said this bullpen would be a strength of the team — it isn’t. It is a glaring weakness of a team that could be a few games over .500 instead of a few under if only they had a competent pen.

Many believed that general manager Al Avila “fixed” Detroit’s bullpen woes from a year ago. The truth is, he might have made them worse:

2015: 4.38 ERA, .770 OPS against

2016: 4.74 ERA, .801 OPS against

Mark Lowe and Justin Wilson were brought in over the winter to be the bridge to closer Francisco Rodriguez — that plan has not gone the way they expected. Lowe has a 7.79 ERA, surrendering five home runs in the month of May. Wilson has been better than Lowe but not great with his 3.92 ERA and 20 hits allowed in 20 innings pitched.

Next: San Diego

3. San Diego Padres

When Fernando Rodney and Ryan Buchter don’t pitch for the Padres out of the pen, their ERA as a unit is 5.90. Collectively the group sports a 5.07 ERA which puts them at third worst in the majors. Like the Twins, this bullpen is worn out. They’ve tallied the most innings pitched in baseball with 195. Their 110 earned runs allowed is second in the major leagues and is 28 more than the average bullpen.

Undoubtedly, the most embarrassing moment for this bullpen came in Thursday night’s defeat to the Seattle Mariners. San Diego took a commanding 12-2 lead into the sixth inning. 45 minutes later, the lead was gone.

Ryan Buchter, who has been a bright spot for this pen, was tagged for four runs in 0.2 innings pitched. Next up was Brandon Maurer, who allowed three runs without recording an out. Matt Thornton came in to save some face but allowed two more runs in the inning to make it 16-12. The Padres came into the seventh inning with a 12-7 lead before the bullpen combusted.

“It’s one of those things that’s borderline inexplicable,” Padres manager Andy Green said. “I’ve been around baseball a long time. You don’t see teams come back from 10. That’s just not something that happens very often.”

Next: Texas

2. Texas Rangers

While I understand that the Texas Rangers play in a bandbox of a stadium in Arlington, what they’ve been able to do with such an inept bullpen is truly amazing. They’re currently sitting at 31-22 and tied for first place in the AL West. The Rangers pen’s 5.21 ERA and .287 batting average against are good for second-to-last and last in the league, respectively.

They are second worst in the league in OPS against (.847), home runs surrendered (31), and WHIP (1.51). As a group, they’ve pitched 164 innings which is five below the league average, so they aren’t worn out. Manager Jeff Banister has gone on-record and said that his management of the bullpen has been “imperfect” but there may be no other way for him to manage it. He only trusts a few relievers, and when he has to go to the middle men, it almost always ends in a loss.

“The easy answer is that we’ve got to have somebody else step up and be able to close out four and five-run games, but we’ve blown seven saves,” Banister said before Wednesday’s game. “We’ve lost multiple-run leads to a point where we had to change closers. When you don’t hold on to leads, it does something to the psyche of a club.”

As Bannister noted, the Rangers have blown seven saves which is only one higher than the league average, but when you’re in the middle of a pennant race that can be costly.

“There was a trend going that had to be reversed,” he added. “The management of the bullpen has been somewhat imperfect, but we are continuing to nail down games so that we can keep winning.”

Next: Cincinnati

1. Cincinnati Reds

Similar to Minnesota, the Cincinnati Reds can’t do anything right. For me to say that their bullpen is the cause for all their problems would be a bold-faced lie. Having said that, they have the worst pen in Major League Baseball and it isn’t even close.

More from Call to the Pen

That explosion that the San Diego Padres had on Thursday night was a microcosm of what the Reds have been doing all year. Ok, not to the extent of blowing 12-2 leads, but pretty darn close. The Cincinnati Reds bullpen ranks dead last in ERA, saves, earned runs, runs, walks, hits, home runs, blown saves, WHIP and OPS against.

The Washington Nationals bullpen has given up 43 runs this season. The Reds bullpen has given up 42 home runs. With numbers like the Reds bullpen is serving up, they may not just be the worst bullpen of this year. No, the ineffectiveness of this pen is starting to reach “worst pen in history” levels. Here are some numbers of historically bad bullpens since the first expansion in 1961:

There’s more:

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If the Reds keep it up, they can break all sorts of records. While they sit at 19-35 and 19 games back of first place, maybe they should try and go for this? Whichever way you slice it, the 2016 Cincinnati Reds bullpen is by far the worst in the league. Only time will tell if they can finish up as the worst to ever to do it.

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The top five worst bullpens in MLB should come as no surprise to anyone, with the exception of one successful team on the list.