2019 MLB Season: Six Relievers to Trust a Lead with

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(Photo by Lizzy Barrett/MLB Photos via Getty Images) /

Not all relievers can get the saves, the titles, the fame. In the 2019 MLB season, these six relievers don’t get those – they get outs.

I can forgive you for not knowing Nick Anderson when he was pitching the 7th and 8th innings for a Miami Marlins team stuck in the mud. The Twins plucked him from the Independent League and stuck him in A-ball as a 25-year-old back in 2015. The Marlins snagged him prior to the 2019 MLB season in a one-for-one swap of minor leaguers.

The Marlins did well to net Jesus Sanchez, a top-50 prospect for Anderson and Trevor Richards. With most top prospects held behind lock and key, the move definitely prompted some rubbernecking within the industry, but this was no wreck.

Turning a minor-league non-prospect into a Top-50 guy in less than nine months is borderline magical. To fully understand how well the Rays did on their end of this deal, read Ben Clemens’ piece on Fangraphs. This deal was an easy win for both organizations.

Richards started twenty games for the Fish, but they bumped him to the pen just before the deadline. The overall line’s not great (3-12, 4.50 ERA/4.74 FIP), but the 26-year-old showed well in three scoreless relief outings. Since moving down the street to Tampa, Richards has moved back into the rotation….for the Durham Bulls.

The prize of the deal was definitely Anderson, who has been nothing short of brilliant since joining the Rays. Combined, he has a chance for a 2.0+ fWAR 2019 MLB season, which qualifies as pretty freakin’ good for a reliever who doesn’t even pitch the ninth inning.

His 15.04 K/9 should make your eyes bulge visibly from your face – it’s the third-highest number in the majors. Add to that just 2.9 BB/9 and Anderson is firmly in the Josh Hader range. There aren’t many relievers who boast Anderson’s numbers, and now he is employed by the Rays. They treat relievers right in Tampa.

The trade was a perfect one, and Anderson has more than played the part the Rays expected of him. He is as much of a lock to pitch in the wild card game as anyone on the Rays roster, and he comes with two more seasons of control before he even hits arbitration.

The Marlins ended up with a better prospect for Anderson than the Mets got for Marcus Stroman. Sanchez might be the best prospect that changed teams at the deadline. And it wasn’t an overpay. The Rays are hiding their elation, but the book is out on Anderson. It’s not long, but it’s damn good.

I know you’ve been burned before, but there are other relievers out there like Anderson. They’re not collecting saves, and they haven’t been designated Fireman, but they’re good, and you can trust them. Open your heart and learn to love again. Start with Anderson, then move on to these next 5 relievers.

2019 MLB Season: Six Relievers to Believe in

Aaron Bummer, Chicago

If you want to discover relievers who might be flying under the radar, the American League Central is the first place to look. No, not because of the overflowing array of talent situated there. Quite the opposite.

Relievers don’t get volume opportunities to rack up aggregating stats like typical starters do. What they do have is a spotlight during the most high-leverage opportunities of the games that matter most. Without those opportunities, it’s tough to make your name as a reliever.

The Chicago White Sox haven’t had a ton of high-impact moments during the 2019 MLB season. They’re better than expected this season, hanging around .500 for much of the first half, but at 54-65, the Southsiders have settled in.

One area that’s been largely okay for the ChiSox is their bullpen. As a unit, they rank 13th in the majors with a 4.42 ERA, though that’s the most optimistic overall number you’ll find. They’re second to last by walk rate and dead last in strikeout rate. They’ve blown 10 saves and taken 15 losses, the third and fifth-fewest in the majors.

Feel free to attribute much of their back-end success to 25-year-old lefty Aaron Bummer. This season is Bummer’s third with at least 30 appearances, but the first where it really feels like he’s here to stay.

And while he may be good, can he make a 14-year veteran look silly? Yes, he can.

Aaron Bummer, Wicked 95mph Sinker. 😯 pic.twitter.com/XBrqqx4Vfi
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 5, 2019

Across 40 games, the former 19th-round pick has a 1.72 ERA/3.18 FIP (1.0 fWAR, 2.2 bWAR).

If the higher FIP isn’t enough to give you pause, however, there are some other reasons to wonder how sustainable Bummer’s season has been thus far.

His strikeout totals are low, 7.85 K/9 – very low for a reliever – and his control has been good, but not otherworldly. A .248 BABIP may yet regress upwards, and he’s sure to eventually surrender some home runs. In 77 games between this year and last, only 3 balls have left the yard off Bummer. But it’s not entirely luck.

Bummer earns his money killing worms. Like T.J. McFarland of the Diamondbacks, Bummer survives unspectacular strikeout numbers by generating a tremendous amount of groundballs. His 70% GB% is second in the majors amongst relievers. Launch angles be damned, it’s tough to hit a groundball home run.

If Bummer can keep it up, the White Sox can entrust him with increasingly high-leverage situations in the 2019 MLB season’s final six weeks – should they have any.

(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

2019 MLB Season: Six Relievers to Believe in

Giovanny Gallegos, St. Louis Cardinals

Giovanny Gallegos is the reason Cardinals executives don’t cry themselves to sleep at night. As Luke Voit has blasted his way into the national conversation, the Cardinals have been relegated to the role of the swindled party for their part in Voit’s trade to the Yankees.

That Voit has performed as well as Paul Goldschmidt during the 2019 MLB season surely smarts, but at the end of the day, the Redbirds have a stellar first baseman on their roster today. They also have a flame-throwing righty to bridge the middle innings to Carlos Martinez, and they wouldn’t have that guy if they didn’t trad Voit away.

No, Giovanny Gallegos is not, likely, as valuable as Voit in the long-term. Voit has to stay healthy, however, and that’s no small thing for the big first baseman.

This season, Gallegos has been just about as valuable to Voit (1.6 fWAR to 1.5 fWAR). Especially since Jordan Hicks went down, Gallegos has taken on a larger share of the responsibility in the Cardinals pen, and if he keeps it up that role will grow.

In 46 games, he’s totaled 55 innings, a clear demonstration of his ability to throw multiple innings at a time, which these days can make the difference between a good and a great reliever. His 1.96 ERA/2.41 FIP plays in whatever role you ask of him.

Gallegos’ stuff will play no matter how the Cardinals want to use him. A future bullpen with a healthy Hicks and a settled-in Gallegos will look pretty terrifying to the rest of the NL Central. 12.44 K/9 to 1.80 BB/9 demonstrates Gallegos’ ability to miss bats while filling up the strike zone with both his heater and his slider.

He’s a two-pitch guy for now, but so long as he masters a snarl or windup affectation, that’s all he needs at the back end of a bullpen. His 37.3 K% is an elite number, as are these numbers: .183 expected batting average against, .207 wOBA. He followed up a 0.61 ERA in June with a 0.69 ERA in July. In August he has yet to allow an earned run. He’s good and he’s getting better.

The Cardinals mostly deploy Gallegos in the 7th or 8th, but don’t be surprised to hear his name called during the highest-leverage moments as the Cardinals hunt for a playoff spot.

2019 MLB Season: Six Relievers to Believe in

Sean Newcomb, Atlanta Braves

You’ve probably heard of Sean Newcomb by now. While prospect nuts slobber over the Braves collection of young arms, Newcomb has been the one on display tempering expectations.

He flunked out of the rotation this year, pushed to a bullpen that has struggled to lock down wins for most of the 2019 MLB season. The newcomers have taken the brunt of the criticism lately, but Newcomb and tag-team partner Luke Jackson were the scapegoats for most of the year.

Expectations for Newcomb were bloated from the jump due to his association with the rest of Atlanta’s high-end arms, but he also made his own bed with solid showings in 2017 and 2018. As a mostly full-time starter last year, Newcomb took 30 turns on the rubber, going 12-9 with a 3.90 ERA/4.14 FIP across a solid-for-this-era 164 innings.

Neither Baseball-Reference (1.7 bWAR) nor Fangraphs (1.9 fWAR) was in love with Newcomb’s 2018, putting a little extra pressure on the big lefty to up his game this season.

Instead, after three blah starts, the Braves moved him to the pen at the beginning of May and he’s been there ever since. To his credit, he wasn’t bad as a starter. The Braves won all three of his starts, and he held a 4.38 ERA when they made the move. Still, twice he didn’t make it past four innings, and if this was the plan all along (very possible), the need in the pen made the move easy for ownership.

While the team cycled through closers, Newcomb never really got the opportunity to anchor the pen, and a couple of high-profile slip-ups marred what’s otherwise been a decent showing.

When your team acquires three new potential closers at the trade deadline, there’s definitely the feeling that nobody in the pen had been doing a good job. Newcomb’s not been put out to pasture. He’s still out there, and he’ll remain an important left-handed arm for Atlanta down the stretch.

Since joining the bullpen in May, Newcomb has made 35 appearances for 40 2/3 innings with a 2.66 ERA. Opponents are batting .236/.292/.376 – and he’s getting more comfortable out there. With twelves holds and one save to just one blown save, Newcomb has a chance to really impact the Braves playoff run when the bullpen becomes all the more important.

His stuff hasn’t played up much, if at all, in shorter bursts, but the contributions are there. In less than a third of the innings, he pitched last year, by WAR he’s putting together a more efficient season (0.8 bWAR, 0.7 fWAR). As I’ve said at least once already, bullpens matter only as much as they can carry a team through the high-leverage moments, so while the efficiency from Newcomb is fine, his mettle will be tested in the moments yet to come. For those, tune back in this October.

2019 MLB Season: Six Relievers to Believe in

Tommy Kahnle and Zack Britton, New York Yankees

More from Call to the Pen

Shredder has the street cred. He’s the Big Bad the Ninja Turtles know to fear. The Foot Clan won’t win any awards for their execution of a gameplan, but there are plenty of other villains before Hamato Yoshi’s nemesis to demand the Turtles’ attention – and earn it once they do.

Aroldis Chapman is the Big Bad at the end of the Yankees games. There’s not a game that goes by when – much like Shredder – Chapman’s name isn’t whispered somewhere in the ballpark with fearful deference. But as with Shredder, he’s not the only one out to get our heroes.

Meet the Bebop and Rocksteady of the Yankees bullpen, Tommy Kahnle, and Zack Britton.

Britton you know, both from his years of locking down wins for Baltimore’s more recent winner, but also for the year and a half he spent in trade rumors before the Yankees eventually made their move. After re-signing this offseason, Britton has slid under the radar amidst a barrage of Yankee home runs – but he is a weapon in pinstripes.

2.17 ERA/4.13 FIP in 53 games while generating groundballs at a higher rate (79.4 GB%) than any other pitcher in the major leagues. He’s essentially a supercharged Aaron Bummer, a guy who’s been there before, closed big games, and with 25 holds and 3 saves, he is still capable of locking down the biggest moments of the game.

As Britton is to Chapman, Kahnle is to Adam Ottavino – he’s not the one you know, he’s the other guy. With a 2.92 ERA/3.36 FIP, the 29-year-old righty gives the Yankees bullpen the kind of length unheard of outside of New York. He has 21 holds while pitching more often than not in the 7th inning, which is – good thing – where he excells: 1.73 ERA across 26 total innings in the 7th frame this year. Oh, and his primary pitch is, counterintuitively, a changeup?

Next. Is Joe Ross the next Jake Arrieta?. dark

There are only three acceptable answers to the question of who the best team in baseball is in 2019: the Astros, Dodgers, and Yankees. The Yankees lineup is right there with the Astros and Dodgers, and while their rotation remains a mess, their postseason future will fall to this bullpen. There’s no Foot Clan in New York. Only a bullpen that’s as [bebop and] rock steady as they come.

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