Bullpen Report: April 6, 2015

Opening Day is here and the closer carousel is in full swing.

• Colin touched up on the Craig Kimbrel trade fall out last night and as expected Jason Grilli was tabbed as Kimbrel’s replacement. Grilli threw a perfect inning today with two strikeouts for his first save of the year. Grilli’s fastball topped out at 97 mph today and he was consistently hitting 95 mph which is actually better than in his heyday as the Pirates closer. The options behind Grilli aren’t too appealing so if Grilli pitches reasonably well he should have no problem holding on to the job. Strangely enough, in some sense the better Grilli pitches the worse his job security would be as he would become an intriguing trade commodity for competing teams considering the Braves have clearly played their hand on not competing this season. Either way, I would advise you to run to the waivers to put a claim on Grilli and don’t be afraid to spend a lot of your FAAB budget on him as well.

• Jenrry Mejia was preparing to enter the ninth inning for a save today but had to be shut down with stiffness in his elbow. It’s apparently a new injury for Mejia and not related to anything over the spring. Mejia will have a MRI later this week and we will have a better idea of what’s going on and how long he will be on the shelf for the Mets.  Mejia’s never exhibited strong health and any time you hear of an elbow injury, it’s not a good sign, duh. I’m no doctor and nothing has been said yet, but I’m going to assume Mejia will be placed on the DL, possibly for an extended stay. In his place as closer will be Jeurys Familia and Terry Collins also said that Rafael Montero could move into a more “prominent role” as well. Familia is really no worse than Mejia, it’s just that Mejia closed games first and hung onto the job so even if Mejia returns it’s no guarantee he’s the better option to take over in the ninth. Don’t hesitate to spend some of your FAAB budget on Familia if he’s available.  As for the guys behind Familia, I’ll roll with what Collins’ is selling and keep an eye on Montero as well as Carlos Torres who threw a clean seventh today. Buddy Carlyle received a two-out save today but it’s unlikely he’ll be closing more games for the Mets.

• Kevin Gregg blew the lead today allowing two runs to score in the eighth inning, which is the kind of thing that happens when you let Kevin Gregg pitch in the eighth inning. The Reds took back the lead and gave Aroldis the save opp, where he needed only nine pitches to get two K’s and a perfect inning for his first save. The order leading up to Aroldis is a little tenuous at the moment, but I feel confident leaving Gregg off the grid.

• Kenley Jansen was still in his walking boot today. There have been a few mixed reports regarding this, with some saying that the boot should have been off by now, seemingly winking towards a set back and others saying he simply wears it from time to time. Without any other word I will still assume that Jansen will still be back by the end of April/early May still. In the meantime, expect Joel Peralta and Chris Hatcher to see save opportunities. Mattingly was non-committal to naming a replacement but went to Hatcher today and I moved him ahead in the grid but Peralta could certainly see the next opportunity.

• Quick Hits: David Price couldn’t quite get the complete game shut out on opening day and Joe Nathan came on for the one out save. Junichi Tazawa threw a scoreless eighth up by four, but the Sox put up four more runs and didn’t use their closer. Mujica is still the man there with Uehara on the shelf. Luke Gregerson saved the game for the Astros, throwing a perfect ninth and it didn’t take long for Fernando Rodney to launch his first arrow in the air, closing the game for the Mariners.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Addison Reed	Evan Marshall	Brad Ziegler
Atlanta	Jason Grilli	Jim Johnson	Luis Avilan
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Tommy Hunter
Boston	Edward Mujica	Junichi Tazawa	Alexi Ogando	Koji Uehara
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Neil Ramirez
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Zach Putnam	Zach Duke	Jacob Petricka
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Jumbo Diaz	Tony Cingrani	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Scott Atchison
Colorado	LaTroy Hawkins	Adam Ottavino	Boone Logan
Detroit	Joe Nathan	Joakim Soria	Al Alburquerque
Houston	Luke Gregerson	Chad Qualls	Pat Neshek
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Vinnie Pestano
LAD	Chris Hatcher	Joel Peralta	Pedro Baez	Kenley Jansen
Miami	Steve Cishek	A.J. Ramos	Mike Dunn
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Jonathan Broxton	Will Smith
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Brian Duensing	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Jenrry Mejia	Jeurys Familia	Carlos Torres	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	Dellin Betances	Andrew Miller	David Carpenter
Oakland	Tyler Clippard	Eric O’Flaherty	Dan Otero	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Ken Giles	Jake Diekman
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Jared Hughes
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Jordan Walden	Seth Maness
SD	Craig Kimbrel	Joaquin Benoit	Dale Thayer	Kevin Quackenbush
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Jeremy Affeldt
Seattle	Fernando Rodney	Danny Farquhar	Yoervis Medina	Dominic Leone
TB	Brad Boxberger	Grant Balfour	Kevin Jepsen	Jake McGee
Texas	Neftali Feliz	Shawn Tolleson	Keone Kela	Tanner Scheppers
Toronto	Brett Cecil	Aaron Loup	Miguel Castro	Steve Delabar
Wash.	Drew Storen	Aaron Barrett	Blake Treinen	Casey Janssen

[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]