The Missteps that Led to a Weak Pittsburgh Pirates Bullpen

The 2015 bullpen of the Pittsburgh Pirates was one of the best in the league, but the 2016 version has been scuffling. What led to the issues the team is seeing this season?

If there is one thing that Neal Huntington has been successful at in recent years as the General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, it is assembling a very good bullpen during the offseason. Since 2013, the first year that the team reached the postseason after a two decade drought, the Pirates have always seen the bullpen as an area of strength.

So far in 2016, that is not the case. As you can see from the table below, the bullpen up to this point of the season is performing much worse than they have in recent years. Their collective ERA is up more than 1.50 runs compared to 2015. Teams are also hitting better against them this year, which is evident in the BAA and is also a contributor to the elevated ERA.

*Through June 17th

Here are three reasons that have led to the poor performance from the relief corps.

Caminero has gone from bad to worse

When the Pirates traded for Arquimedes Caminero, he embodied the prototypical pitcher that the team has tried to acquire during Huntington’s tenure. He is a big, hard throwing pitcher who needs to work on his control. In 2015, his first year with the club, he compiled an ERA of 3.62 and struck out 73 hitters in 74.2 innings. One troubling statistic from last year, which may have been an omen for this year, were the 29 walks he issued.

So far this season, Caminero looks more like the pitcher the Miami Marlins gave up on after 2014. He has only worked 21.2 innings so far this season and overall they have not been good. His ERA sits at 4.57 and his BB/K ratio is 17/17. He has also allowed more hits (30) than innings pitched. He is going to need to bring the free passes down and start to do a better job of not allowing base runners overall. Or he could be in jeopardy of losing his spot in the bullpen for good.

Bastardo allowed to leave, not properly replaced

Another pitcher that the Pirates acquired before the 2015 season was Antonio Bastardo. Bastardo was brought in to act as a second left handed relief option for Clint Hurdle, and did a fantastic job when he was needed. He put together a 2.98 ERA in 57.1 innings and struck out 64. Bastardo’s free agency took him to the New York Mets for 2016 and his numbers have not been as good as what he did in 2015. So perhaps the Pirates should be applauded for not bringing him back.

But it also needs to be considered that the Pirates had no plan B when it came to a second left handed reliever for 2016. Kyle Lobstein and Cory Luebke have been seen action out of the bullpen, but neither have been very good. Lobstein’s ERA is 4.13 in his 24 innings of work and Luebke’s sat at an awful 9.35 in just 8.2 innings this year before being designated for assignment on June 17th.

Even the stalwarts are pitching poorly

The three faces that fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates have gotten used to seeing in the late innings the last few years are Jared Hughes, Tony Watson and Mark Melancon. Other relievers have come and gone, but those three make up the backbone of the Shark Tank.  However, even these pitchers have seen a dip in performance so far this season. Here are their numbers from 2015:

And here is how they have done so far this season:

Now, Melancon obviously has a very good ERA. But what is concerning here is that he has already walked seven hitters this season. Last year his total was 14 and that came in over 76 innings of work. There is some reason to believe that these three will turn it around given their pedigrees. However it’s been a rough going for them, especially the two that are called upon to usually work the seventh and eighth innings.

What can be done?

Huntington has said that the team can find bullpen help internally but that doesn’t mean the Pirates won’t check out the trade market. One way the team can boost the bullpen internally would be to remove someone from the rotation and move them to a relief role. This could happen sooner rather than later since Gerrit Cole will be activated from the disabled list, Jameson Taillon looks to be here and Tyler Glasnow should be in Pittsburgh soon.

With the Pittsburgh Pirates’ record sitting at 33-34, fixing the bullpen should be a top priority before the trading deadline. There is still time to turn the season around, but that window is starting to close as the losses continue to pile up.

Featured Photo Credit – Daniel Decker Photography