Boston Red Sox: Checking in on the bullpen
The Boston Red Sox bullpen has its flaws, but there are some viable pieces as well.
The Boston Red Sox haven’t gotten off to the start they planned as evidenced by the fact that they are looking up in the standings at the Orioles. Being 5-10 is hardly a death sentence, but with the Rays looking more impressive by the day and New York getting by despite the laundry list of injuries, it might be time to start being concerned.
This off season, everyone in the state of Massachusetts was calling for Dave Dombrowski to go get some relievers, especially after they lost Joe Kelly to the Dodgers and decided Craig Kimbrel (who is still available) was too pricey. Aside from making an upside play with Colten Brewer and getting Tyler Thornburg further away from surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome, the Red Sox did not make any deals to improve their relief corps.
When you are the defending world champions and you get off to a bad start, especially in a place that expects excellence like Boston, fans are going to grill (and rightfully so) the front office and the owners for not making improvements. Has it been doom and gloom for the Red Sox bullpen? When your best pitcher has been Matt Barnes (who if you google search comes up as the ex-NBA player), that leaves something to be desired. It hasn’t been the best but there have been some bright spots and reason for optimism coming for the much maligned bullpen.
Matt Barnes
Matt Barnes has been the best reliever (arguably the best pitcher) for the Red Sox so far, accumulating nearly half a win in five innings so far. Its how he is doing it that should have fans clamoring for more.
Barnes currently is bringing the heat. His fastball is averaging a blistering 96.2 MPH that ranks in the 95th percentile in all of baseball. That same pitch also has incredible spin, ranking in the 83rd percentile and allowing Barnes to be lethal up in the zone.
The other calling card for Barnes has been his breaking ball that he’s thrown nearly 60% of the time. His heat map for his curve ball is a thing of beauty, throwing one version down and away to right handers for a strike, then breaking one off that is out of the zone and hitters have little chance of doing anything with. This nasty mix of pitches has given hitters all kinds of problems so far evidenced by Barnes facing 20 hitters so far, striking out 10 of them and has yet to issue a free pass or give up a home run.
He may not be the first Matt Barnes to pop up on google, but Red Sox faithful should be thanking Barnes for being the stabilizing force in a bullpen that has given up 27 runs so far.
Workman is a little different than your average reliever because he doesn’t throw hard.
Armed with a fastball that only averages 88 MPH, it’s safe to say he isn’t a power pitcher. That hasn’t stopped him, however, as he has struck out nine batters, surrendered one hit, and has yet to give up a run over his 6.1 innings of work on the young season.
Workman has had success throwing his fastball and cutter all throughout the zone and throwing his curve ball out of zone. The curve has been his primary pitch, throwing it 54% of the time while mixing in his hard stuff to keep hitters guessing.
Right now, Workman is thriving on getting hitters to chase his pitches out of the zone. League average Chase% is 28.1% while Workman is at 36%. More impressive though is that when hitters chase any of his pitches, they aren’t making contact. Workman’s Contact Chase% is a ridiculous 36.4% whereas league average is north of 60%.
Workman is succeeding so far with largely the same stuff he had in 2018 and 2017, but his pitch usage is starting to heavily favor his curve ball that has above average spin. We have seen a number guys like Lance McCullers and Rich Hill throw curve hitters to death. While Workman doesn’t have their velocity, this may be providing a blueprint for him to be successful.
Colten Brewer
When I wrote about Colten Brewer a few weeks ago, I had identified him as possibly the next Ryan Pressly. While 5.2 innings is hardly a sample at all it at least gives us something to look at.
Brewer has continued his wild ways, walking six batters, but at least he has struck out nine. The explosiveness of the stuff is clearly not the question but rather commanding it. There are positives though, Brewer is limiting hard contact and inducing weak contact at an average exit velocity of 84.4 (league average is 87.4).
He is still relatively green, with less than 20 MLB innings in his career so far. As mentioned, he still is showing the stuff that made him an interesting pick up in the first place, with one of the top curve balls by spin rate in the league. In fact, hitters have whiffed at 12 of his curves already, which is tops in all of MLB. He is also throwing his fastball harder than he has in the past and locating it up in the zone to generate swings and misses.
Brewer is one of the X-factors for the bullpen because if he puts it together, he could make Red Sox fans forget all about Craig Kimbrel. Don’t believe me? Consider this NSFW hook that falls off the table.
It is, of course, still early for the entirety of Boston Red Sox bullpen to course correct. While early results haven’t been great and there is a lack of star power closing out games, there are still some talented guys in the bullpen who could get more innings and contribute to a turnaround. There will also be a number of guys who could be had at the trade deadline as every team seeks out improvement for the second half in the postseason.
dark. Next. Kimbrel finally lowers asking price
Moral of the story, it is still early. Let some of these interesting guys pitch and see what you have in stock. Someone may break out and fill the shoes of Kimbrel/Kelly. Worst case scenario, they could just go get Kimbrel to fill his own shoes.