Atlanta Braves: Reassessing the Bullpen Situation

The Atlanta Braves bullpen has already lost two members of the night shift. We reassess where the bullpen is today and the guys who we can count on. 

Alex Anthopoulos did a great job in the offseason improving what was already a great bullpen for the Atlanta Braves.

And we’re even more thankful now for the additions made in Kenley Jansen, Collin McHugh, and Darren O’Day because of the losses of Luke Jackson and Tyler Matzek.

Jackson is lost for the year, Matzek is currently on the IL with shoulder inflammation.

And despite the blown save on Wednesday, this bullpen has been a top 10 bullpen in baseball all year long.

They’re ninth in all of baseball with a 3.38 ERA and they’re ninth in WHIP at 1.16. But the numbers are really more dominated than that when you consider they’re second in baseball in K/9 at 10.79, and a lot of their runs given up were by lower leverage relievers in mop-up duty.

One area you would like to see improvement is the BB/9 where they currently rank 15th at 3.43.

But pretty much all of their top relievers have been great. Jansen, A.J. Minter, Will Smith, Darren O’Day, and Spencer Strider all have an ERA under four.

McHugh has had a couple of bad outings but has been very good for the most part.

Matzek hasn’t really been himself all year and now we know why.

Let’s take a look at the current bullpen scenario categorized by high-leverage and low-leverage arms.

Braves: High-leverage bullpen arms

Jansen, Minter, Smith, and Strider

These are the guys who ideally you would only use in a close game in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings.

Strider is someone who could cover two of those innings for you — and probably should have on Wednesday.

Jansen and Minter have been great all year.

While Smith is still effective, you want to try and use him in either the seventh or eighth against the bottom part of the other team’s lineup.

But these are the four guys you want to see in a close ball game late.

Braves: Medium-leverage bullpen arms

McHugh and O’Day

The ideal spot for these two is in the sixth and seventh innings of a close game — whether that be winning by one-to-three runs or losing by one-to-three runs.

Both of these guys are capable of bridging the gap to your high-leverage relievers, or keeping you in a game and giving the offense time to come back.

Braves: Low-leverage bullpen arms

Stephens, Thornburg, and Chavez

These are the arms you only want to see coming into a game when the score is lopsided (four or more runs either way).

Again, all three of these guys have been great at times. Stephens has a 1.50 ERA in 12 innings, while Chavez has a 1.17 in 7.2 innings.

But primarily, these are not the arms you want to depend on in close games.

That’s the blueprint for Brian Snitker right now, and it’s a winning blueprint if you can stick do that game plan.

As we’ve seen recently with some extra-inning games, it doesn’t work out that way. Chave and Stephens have been the pitchers of record in such occurrences over the past week.

But even with the loss of Luke Jackson and the absence of Matzek, this is a bullpen that more often than not will get the job done when used the right way.