With Trea Turner at the plate, Brad Lord and the Washington Nationals were one strike away from completing another emotional win over the Phillies. In what felt like an hour later, Trea Turner came to the plate again in the top of the 9th to single and make it 14-8 Phillies. I would say I have never seen anything like this, but I did just a couple weeks ago in San Francisco.
At this point, we know what the floor of this bullpen is, and it is at the Dead Sea. The bullpen can actually string together
some decent performances. However, when it is not going right, this unit is legitimately unable to get outs. That 9th inning in San Francisco and the 9th inning tonight are perfect examples of that.
All the damage in those innings came without the other team even making an out. Tonight, 10 straight Phillies reached base with two outs, turning an 8-6 lead into a 14-8 deficit. The normally reliable Brad Lord crumbled so quickly that he gave up 5 runs before another reliever was even able to get ready.
It was so close to being such a statement victory at Nationals Park. The crowd was engaged and fired up in a way that I had not seen in years. They were ready to explode when Lord got two strikes on Trea Turner. Instead, they went home disappointed like they have so many times over the past 6 years.
At the end of the day, this bullpen just does not have the horses. The floor is super low in the bullpen for a reason. It is because these guys do not have swing and miss stuff. When they desperately need it, these guys cannot get that big strikeout. Blake Butera mentioned all the times Nats pitchers got into 2 strike counts and could not finish the job.
He talked a lot about execution, and that is part of the problem. However, the bigger problem is something he cannot really say. These relievers just do not have good enough stuff. Butera knows this, but clearly you cannot totally throw your guys under the bus. Nats relievers have the lowest whiff rate in the MLB by a large margin and have the worst stuff with the least velocity.
As Paul Toboni sinks his teeth into this project further, that will change. However, for now, this bullpen is always on the brink of disaster because if they are not executing, there is nothing for them to fall back on. I wrote about the Nats lack of stuff in the bullpen and some options to fix that.
These pieces really loom large right now. I love me some Brad Lord and still think he is an extremely valuable piece of this bullpen. However, his best role is as a multi-inning guy. His stuff is fine, but it is not lockdown closer stuff. When the Phillies have a tight game in the 9th, they can turn to Jhoan Duran, who averages over 100. Meanwhile, the Nats don’t have anyone who even averages 97.
The Nats have some okay pieces in the bullpen, but they do not have an alpha, or anything close to that. Clayton Beeter has good stuff, but he can’t throw strikes. Richard Lovelady has a closer mentality, but he does not have closer stuff. Orlando Ribalta is solid, but he is not elite either. PJ Poulin is a nice opener, but nothing more. Gus Varland has gotten big outs before, but he also has plenty of blow up potential. It is just slim pickings for Blake Butera when he needs to get big outs.
Paul Toboni has been so long term driven in his quotes this year, but this morning on the radio, he struck a different tone. He talked about how much this loss ate at him and acknowledged that this team could be in a very different place with a better bullpen.
Toboni is a big reason why the bullpen is in this spot. He traded the Nats highest upside bullpen arm that he inherited in Jose A. Ferrer. The Ford for Ferrer trade made a ton of sense at the time, but it has not aged well so far. Ferrer is not some perfect reliever, but he throws gas and has been good in high leverage.
He also used the waiver wire to build the bullpen, instead of signing more proven options. When the Rangers rebuilt their bullpen this offseason, they went down the cheap veteran route. They signed Tyler Alexander, Chris Martin, Jalen Beeks and Jakob Junis. Alexander, Junis and Beeks have all been hits, posting ERA’s below 4. These guys were not big money options, but all had fairly long track records.
This is not a bullet proof plan. We saw that last year, when Mike Rizzo brought in Jorge Lopez, Lucas Sims and Colin Poche. None of those guys worked out. However, you have a better chance of finding reliability when you bring in these veterans.
I do not necessarily blame Toboni for choosing the route he did. It is clear that he viewed this as a rebuilding year, and wanted to take some chances on arms that have the team control to help the team beyond this year. However, these guys were on waivers for a reason.
Now that Toboni knows that this team has something about them, I hope he addresses the bullpen at the deadline. I am not asking him to bring in a rental like Aroldis Chapman. Rather, I would like to see him bring in a younger, hard throwing controllable arm like Sam Bachman or Jaden Hill, who I wrote about.
With the lack of stuff in the bullpen, total implosion is on the table at any time for the Washington Nationals. As we get deeper into this build, Paul Toboni must find better stuff in the ‘pen. Whether that is through trades, or converting a guy like Luis Perales to the bullpen, we just need to find swing and miss stuff. Without elite stuff, it is tough to get those final outs, and we saw that last night and in San Francisco.
