MLB: Could Managers Get Creative with Rotations, Bullpens in Short Season?

Getting creative with the bullpen in a shortened 2020 MLB season.

Imagine fourth and fifth starters, think the Mike Leake’s and Mike Fiers’ of the world, who no longer will have to toil through 5 innings or 100 pitches of mediocrity. Instead, their accuracy and wide pitcher arsenals can be pared down and translated into relief work. And these transitions, even before 2020, have led to success. Think about a league full of Wade Davis mimicry, where league average and below starting pitchers can put all their energy into a short season and become bullpen stalwarts.

That’s how I envision the MLB bullpens to be structured in 2020. I imagine a whole lot of talent crammed into a short season that offers far fewer innings to its players. Expanded rosters will mean more arms will be available, and young kids like Mackenize Gore of the Padres and Forest Whitley of the Astros can get a taste of baseball at the highest level without needing to conserve their innings.

Think for a moment on this hypothetical.

Chris Paddack fires three perfect innings, mowing down the opposing team for his Padres. He could certainly continue, but let’s say this is the fifth day of the first week of the new season, and San Diego’s brand new manager Jayce Tingler wants to be cautious. Enter Gore, who swallows the fourth and fifth innings to make his MLB debut, followed by rehabilitated Garett Richards, who gets through the sixth.

Now, the flamethrowers can get to work. Emilio Pagán sets down the first three hitters he faces and lets Dinelson Lamet strikeout the side in the eighth, setting up Kirby Yates to pitch in the ninth. So many arms, so many options, how can you lose?