I didn’t want to start my first post of the season out by
rambling on and on about how bad the Nationals bullpen is. So, I decided
instead to look back at my previous post to see how I felt about it, and of
course, I found what all Nationals fans including myself already knew, the
bullpen is, as I put it in my last post (on December 9, 2016 mind you), a
dumpster fire. There’s no way around it. There are some normally reliable guys
out there struggling, sure, but for all intents and purposes, the “deepest
bullpen in Nationals history” is turning out to be one of the worst bullpens in
Nationals history.
Dusty Baker told you all you need to know about the
Nationals bullpen last night. In the top of the 7th inning, with Max
Scherzer at 102 pitches through six innings, Dusty decided to let Scherzer hit
for himself. This was Scherzer’s third start of the season, and Dusty was
already going to let him go 110-115+ pitches. I don’t care what anybody says,
Dusty didn’t do that because he wanted to or because Scherzer talked him into
letting him stay in the game. He did that because he had to. At the time, the Nationals had a 2-0 lead and Dusty didn’t
trust that his bullpen could go out there and get him nine outs before they give
up two or more runs, and quite frankly, why would he? At this point in the
season, in a close game where the Nationals are leading, Dusty only trusts two relievers
(Shawn Kelley and Koda Glover – Joe Blanton is on the cusp, but has been giving
up too many homeruns to make the list right now and Sammy Solis is also on the
border). He went with Solis in the 8th inning last night, with Koda
Glover ready to come in if/when Solis got into trouble, which may seem a little
odd since Shawn Kelley is the set-up man. It’s actually not odd at all though,
because it shows that Dusty doesn’t trust Blake Treinen. Shawn Kelley didn’t
pitch the 8th inning last night because Dusty needed him to be ready
for the 9th. It’s the same reason that the Nationals set-up man wasn’t
used to relieve Gio Gonzalez on Sunday in the 8th inning. Koda Glover
came in instead because Dusty knew that Treinen was going to handle the 9th
and he needed Kelley to be ready to put out any fires.
So it looks like we’re back to where we started. Is Koda
Glover going to close, or is Shawn Kelley going to close? Honestly, those were
the Nationals two best options from the beginning. Blake Treinen is a great
pitcher to have in your bullpen. He can come in with runners on and get a
ground ball to get out of a jam. Blake Treinen is not a closer though. For some
reason, the front office got this notion in their head that Blake Treinen needs
to close, but I don’t know that Dusty Baker was ever fully behind that
decision. If it were up to Dusty, a guy who is notorious for going with
veterans over rookies mind you, he would have opened the year with Koda Glover
as his closer. At this point though, Shawn Kelley has earned it. He’s been thrown
into back to back bases loaded jams in the 9th inning that his
friend Blake Treinen started and both times he’s gotten out of it unscathed. Koda
Glover can settle in as the new set-up man knowing that in a year or two the
closers job will be his (assuming he’s successful as the set-up man).
On another note, the Nationals need to clear a roster spot
for Joe Ross before tonight’s game. One thing they can’t do, is send Blake Treinen
down to AAA. His confidence is already shot, you can’t send him down to work
out his problems, just keep him up and let him ease back into pitching in high
leverage situations. He was too valuable to the bullpen last year and he still
has the stuff to come in and get valuable outs late in the game. The two
candidates to get DFA’d are Matt Albers and Henry Rodriguez Enny Romero.
Albers has thrown three scoreless innings for the Nationals since he got called
up two weeks ago, while Romero has shown he can hit 100 mph on the radar guns,
but not much else. My guess is Romero gets designated and Albers stays.
I won’t even bother addressing C.B. Bucknor’s debacle of a
performance last night. He’s a complete disaster and always has been. If Enny
Romero had any control over that 100 mph fastball, then he could do the rest of
the league a favor and throw it right at Bucknor’s knee cap, but he doesn’t.
Maybe Romero and Bucknor will reunite in AAA this year instead.
At the end of the day, the Nationals are 8-5 and in first
place through the first 13 games of the season. We will see Joe Ross for the
first time tonight and Trea Turner’s return should not be too far behind. Although
the bullpen is a total mess, things are looking up for this team. They are in
the midst of a brutal road trip which started in Atlanta, will go to New York
next (including playing the Sunday night game), then on to Colorado for four
games, then back to DC to play the Mets again starting next Friday night. Quite
frankly, a 5-5 road trip followed by the Nats taking two of three from the Mets
back in DC has to be the goal. That would leave the Nationals at 15-11 at the
end of April. Anything better is a bonus, just don’t get swept in New York or
in Colorado.
