Dodgers: Breaking Down the Valuable but Underrated Bullpen

The Dodgers bullpen has gone from being their Achilles heel to one of their biggest strengths over the past couple of seasons. It used to be a struggle for the team to hold the lead, but the script has officially flipped.

The Dodgers currently have a bullpen ERA of 1.65, which is the fifth best in baseball and the second-best in the National League. Last year the Dodger bullpen led all of baseball in ERA and strikeouts, and they were a big reason why Los Angeles won its fourth straight NL West title, despite losing Clayton Kershaw for over two months. Here is a breakdown of how the bullpen will be constructed for most of the season:

Long Relievers

While Alex Wood is currently in the rotation, he will slide back to the bullpen once Rich Hill overcomes his latest blister problem. He will join Ross Stripling as the Dodgers’ long relievers.

Although long relievers are generally seen as the weak links in a bullpen, Wood and Stripling have excellent stuff and would make a lot of other teams’ rotations. Wood came in against the San Diego Padres last week and routinely hit 94 miles per hour, which was a promising sign. Combined with his above-average off-speed offerings, Wood could serve a similar role as Andrew Miller does for the Cleveland Indians.

Stripling is effective at inducing ground balls and could come out of the bullpen to induce a rally-killing double-play when a Dodger starter is in trouble.

Lefty Specialists

The southpaw neutralizers out of the bullpen are Grant Dayton and Luis Avilan. So far the duo has not allowed a single hit to a left-handed hitter in four combined innings. Only one left-handed hitter has reached base off the pair, and it came on a walk by Dayton.

Luis Avilan is more of a middle-inning lefty specialist, whereas Grant Dayton will pitch more in the later innings. Should Alex Wood return to the pen and continue to pitch well, the Dodgers could have three left-handed specialists.

Right Handed Specialists

The setup men who will face a majority of the right-handed hitters are currently Chris Hatcher, Sergio Romo, and Josh Fields. Pedro Baez will join this group when healthy, and upon his return from the DL, will likely take Fields’ roster spot.

Chris Hatcher and Pedro Baez have actually been equally effective against left-handed hitters as they are against right-handed hitters. Hatcher currently has an opposing batting average of .250 against both types of hitters. Last season lefties hit under .200 against Hatcher, so even though he will face righties most of the time, the Dodgers can use him against lefties if they have to.

Sergio Romo was signed to take over Joe Blanton’s role from 2016 as the primary right-handed eighth-inning pitcher. Romo is much more effective against same-sided hitters due to his sweeping slider, which is considered one of the best in baseball.

Right-handed hitters are currently batting .111 against him, whereas lefties are hitting over .300. Although Romo had a lower average allowed against left-handed hitters last season, he should not be used as much against them since his slider isn’t as effective against them.

Closer

Re-signed to a whopping $80 million deal this past offseason, Kenley Jansen is the ace out of the Dodgers’ bullpen. When it comes time to end the game or hold the lead, Jansen comes through more times than not, as evidenced by his 47 saves in 53 chances last season. Jansen struck out an eye-popping 104 batters in just under 69 innings last season.

He is more effective against right-handed hitters, but he still shuts down lefties. Lefties hit .191 off Jansen last season, while he limited right-handers to a .109 average. Kenley Jansen is one of the truly elite closers in the game and chances are when he comes into the game; it won’t be long before Dodger Stadium starts blaring “I Love LA.”

Next: Which Dodger Pitching Prospects to Keep Tabs on

As long as everyone in the Dodger bullpen has a similar season to what they did in 2016, the team will once again have one of the top relief units in the game. Given the early season trend of starting pitchers not going more than six innings, the bullpen will once again have to provide a bulk of quality innings.

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