Throughout his tenure as Pittsburgh Pirates general manager, Neal Huntington has typically been able to build a very effective bullpen.
Huntington has been very good about finding power arms to add to the Pittsburgh Pirates’ pen nearly every single offseason.
However, as we are a month away from pitchers and catchers reporting, as it stands now, the Pirates bullpen has a different look than from years past.
Too Many Southpaws, Even After a Trade
With Tony Watson, Felipe Rivero, Antonio Bastardo and Wade LeBlanc all likely to have a role in the 2017 bullpen, this pen has a very heavy left-handed look to it.
And that is going to be a problem.
While many expect one of the southpaws to be moved, even if they are, it still leaves the Pittsburgh Pirates in a bad position as carrying three southpaws. much less four, will hurt a lot more than it will help.
So how did we get to this point?
For years, Huntington had to assemble a pen with just one lefty in Watson. That left Pirates manager Clint Hurdle a little hamstrung on when to use his lone southpaw. Once 2014 came around the addition of Justin Wilson from the left side gave Hurdle more options late in games. The same goes with the Bastardo signing in 2015.
Two southpaws in the bullpen works.
Three or Four does not.
Even if LeBlanc is kept strictly in a long-relief role, finding the right situations for the other three is going to be tough, especially since as it stands now, the bullpen is only going to have three right-handed arms in Juan Nicasio, Daniel Hudson and Jared Hughes. Another, A.J. Schugel, who was valuable last season, could be stuck fighting for a job.
Watson and Rivero will be pitching in the back end of the pen and while I feel Watson will bounce back, it is no certainty.
The problem the Pittsburgh Pirates will run into is carrying both Bastardo and Leblanc on the roster. Bastardo is coming off a down season in which he allowed an .816 OPS to left-handed hitters.
The good news though is that in the past three seasons combined Bastardo has allowed just a .609 OPS to left handers and .645 to right-handed hitters. That also includes a .198 batting average against to left-handed hitters.
But given his $6.6 million salary this season, Huntington is pretty much crossing his fingers on Bastardo. And the salary alone makes him very tough to move and getting anything of value in return.
And what exactly is Bastardo’s role going to be?
A sixth inning lefty? Just a matchup guy?
I would much rather have a right-handed arm I have more flexibility with.
Then there is LeBlanc.
While Bastardo has a track record and may bounce back, the same can’t be said for LeBlanc.
He did do a couple of nice things in a Pirates uniform last season, with a 0.75 ERA and WHIP in just 12 innings pitched, LeBlanc is also the same guy who during the past three seasons has allowed right-handed hitters to have a bunch of success to the tune of a .461 SLG and .749 OPS.
He has had better success during that span against left-handed hitters, limiting them to a .660 OPS in that span, I would still rather have another hard throwing right-hander or at least a guy like Schugel in that spot. Does anyone really think LeBlanc would excel as a situational lefty? Otherwise, there isn’t a clear-cut role.
There are plenty of right-handed hitters on National League benches that hit average left-handed pitching well. Guys like Ryan Raburn have stayed in the big leagues just because of it.
While things can certainly change in the next month, I just don’t like the way the bullpen is set up on paper, especially since one of the right handers happens to be Jared Hughes, who I don’t have a lot of faith in putting together a big bounce back season.
With that in consideration, it makes sense not to carry three or four southpaws.
Problem being is, out of the trio of Watson, Bastardo and LeBlanc, Watson is the only one with real value. I also don’t think Huntington should move Watson at this point and if he chose to I don’t think he would get maximum value in return.
The bottom line is that with just a month left until pitchers and catchers report, Huntington still has some work to do in assembling this roster.
The bullpen let them down last season at times.
If upgrades aren’t made, that may be the case once again.
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