As you well know by now, the bullpen has had a rough start to 2019. While at times, the pen has held up, the more common theme from the beginning of the season less-than-a-month ago until now is walks by the bushel that lead to runs surrendered over-and-over. This came after the Braves failed to address the bullpen during the offseason, which has angered many fans – myself included – who saw a problem and wondered why the pen was not fixed.<\/p>\n
We pay money to see these players perform. We pay money to support the team. We are invested. There are many different types of success. For me, I want a winner. I’m tired of hearing about next year. That ship sailed when the team signed Josh Donaldson to a one-year deal. The Braves said to the world, “we’re going for it.” But what followed that Donaldson move was to stay pat and watch a series of relievers sign elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Of course, I can already hear the argument many have presented countless times so far. “Look at all the high-priced FA relievers that are struggling.” This mentality looks to limit the discussion to high-priced free agent relievers while ignoring that a team can upgrade in more ways than that (either through lower-priced free agent relievers and\/or trades).<\/p>\n
Even the high-priced free agent relievers argument is largely pretty weak. Adam Ottavino, Kelvin Herrera, and Cody Allen are doing well in their new digs. Zach Britton’s FIP is right with his career average and Joakim Soria’s isn’t far off. FIP is a great predictor of the future in many cases, by the way.<\/p>\n
There were also plenty of lower-cost options that weren’t signed by the Braves that could have helped, were decent last year, and ARE<\/em> off to a good start (Jake Diekman, Shawn Kelley (worrisome FIP, tho), and Greg Holland to name a few).<\/p>\n Even if you want to make that high-priced relievers argument despite its flimsy floor to stand on, Joe Kelly and David Robertson have a track record that suggests they will turn it around. Shane Carle doesn’t have that. Neither does Chad Sobotka. Hell, Braves fans are asking “why not Wes Parsons?” when other relievers come in. I like Wes and have for a long time. But come on now.<\/p>\n We also saw relievers get dealt this offseason. The Braves acquired none. And the bullpen wasn’t that good in 2018 to suggest bringing everyone back, either. It ranked 7th in ERA, but 14th in fWAR, 16th in xFIP, 10th in WPA, 10th in meltdowns, 14th in shutdowns. Not terrible numbers. Better numbers than the rebuild bullpens. But certainly something you want to improve upon if you plan to contend the following year. And even the high-priced talent the Braves settled on – guys they already had control over – were hardly that impressive. Arodys Vizcaino was 115th in fWAR since the start of 2016. I say, “was” because he’s not improving that number after we found out he would miss the rest of the season. Darren O’Day has yet to even throw a pitch in a rehab game. He’s 106th in fWAR since 2016. Sure, injuries play a role here, but that’s part of who they are, too.<\/p>\n As Alex Anthopoulos told Jon Morosi and Jim Bowden<\/a> back in November, “we’d love to get another impact guy in the bullpen.” And then…he didn’t. Perhaps the money wasn’t there, though everyone close to the organization promises that money wasn’t an issue. Perhaps Anthopoulos just didn’t value the impact guy he spoke of in a way that the market did. But by him mentioning this, he understood the bullpen needed improvement and nothing was finalized to improve things. Thus, he<\/em> failed to secure those improvements. The buck stops there.<\/p>\n Oh, sure, we can talk about Liberty Media, but at the end of the day, Anthopoulos saw exactly what we saw. His exact words in that Morosi\/Bowden interview were, “we need to get another outfielder.” Okay, so they sign Nick Markakis. After doing so, Anthopoulos used a phrase that now follows the organization:<\/p>\n \u201cNick coming back on these terms allows us to pursue other things, have financial flexibility to improve the club in other ways.\u201d -Anthopoulos<\/p>\n — Gabe Burns (@GabeBurnsAJC) January 22, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n