MLB Bullpen Red Flags
Bullpen Red Flags: STL Have Burned 15 Relief Arms in 3 Days
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
No pen has worked harder than STL: 15 reliever outings across three games, 5.0 a night. Tired arms give up runs, and they usually give them up in the innings that decide things.
Close behind, PIT have called down 14 times in 3 games.
BAL (13 outings in 3 games) are not far off that pace either.
Fresh and waiting
At the other end, PHI have used just three relievers across two games. A rested pen usually means the manager gets the matchups he wants late, instead of the ones he is stuck with.
The same goes for NYY, who have needed only 5 relief calls in 2 games.
From most-taxed to freshest, the difference is twelve appearances over the same stretch of days, the kind of gap that quietly decides eighth innings.
By the numbers
Every pen in the sample, most-taxed first:
| Team | Relief outings | Games |
|---|---|---|
| STL | 15 | 3 |
| PIT | 14 | 3 |
| BAL | 13 | 3 |
| SF | 12 | 3 |
| SEA | 12 | 3 |
The fine print
The tally counts appearances, not innings: each reliever who entered a captured game adds one to his team's total. Crude on purpose, and applied identically everywhere.
Heavy recent usage does not doom a team tonight, but it narrows a manager's good options in innings seven through nine, and narrow options are where leads go to wobble.
One to circle: St. Louis Cardinals meet Colorado Rockies in their next game, and we will find out quickly whether this stretch travels.