MLB Bullpen Red Flags
Tired Arms Alert: WSH Lead the 3-Day Bullpen Usage Board
Published
Relief pitching is a budget, and some teams have been spending like the bill never comes. From the last three days of captured box scores, here is the relief workload around the league, starters excluded.
The most-taxed arms
WSH have been playing bullpen roulette, 15 relief appearances in just four games, a 3.8-per-game pace that leaves a manager short of fresh options exactly when he wants them most.
MIA are right there with them at 14 relief outings in 3 games.
SF have leaned on the pen 14 times in 3 games themselves.
Fresh and waiting
The freshest arms belong to KC, only five relief appearances in two games, which is the quiet kind of advantage that shows up in the eighth inning.
CHC are in similar shape, with just 6 relief outings across 3 games.
Put the two ends side by side and the gap is ten relief appearances in an identical window, which is enormous in bullpen terms.
By the numbers
Every pen in the sample, most-taxed first:
| Team | Relief outings | Games |
|---|---|---|
| WSH | 15 | 4 |
| MIA | 14 | 3 |
| SF | 14 | 3 |
| COL | 12 | 4 |
| CLE | 12 | 3 |
One more thing
For method, we simply count arms after the starter in each game's pitching lines. It flattens out inning lengths, but it is the same yardstick for every club in the sample, which is what makes the comparison fair.
Usage is context, not destiny. But when the late innings arrive, yesterday's workload is very real, and it does not care about the matchup.
One to circle: Washington Nationals meet Miami Marlins in their next game, and we will find out quickly whether this stretch travels.