I was just looking at our bullpen, and it’s worth re-stating how much it has been generated on the fly. We’ve previously pointed out how Jalen Beeks is the only one of Arizona’s current relievers who was on the Opening Day roster. When he was on the IL, there was a time we had no survivors from Opening Day in the bullpen. But beyond him, Juan Morillo is the sole other one to have pitched for the D-backs before June. Here is a full list of the eight current pitchers in the Diamondbacks bullpen, with
the date of their first appearance, and what they were doing on Opening Day:
- Jalen Beeks, March 27 – on D-backs roster
- Juan Morillo, April 19 – on AAA Reno aces roster
- Kyle Backhus, June 8 – on AAA Reno aces roster
- John Curtiss, June 29 – on AAA Reno aces roster
- Jake Woodford, July 2 – minor league deal with the Yankees
- Andrew Saalfrank, July 12 – suspended for… /gestures vaguely
- Andrew Hoffmann, July 25 – on AAA Mariners affiliate roster
- Juan Burgos, August 9 – on AA Mariners affiliate roster
And on to Milwaukee, to face what could well be the best Brewers team ever. Since being founded in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots, they have never reached a .600 win percentage – this year, they sit at .618. Milwaukee need just to go 16-15 over their remaining games, to set a new franchise high of 97 wins. The previous best was the 2018 Brewers, who lost the NLCS in seven to the Dodgers. However, that was the last postseason Milwaukee won a playoff series, despite reaching there five of six times. The Brewers have lost eleven of their last thirteen postseason contests, dating back to that Game 7 in 2018. So, their problem hasn’t been getting to the playoffs: it has been what they do when they get there.
