A day after Mason Montgomery and Gregory Soto contributed to an eighth-inning collapse against the Astros, Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Pirates are actively pursuing bullpen help.
A day after Mason Montgomery and Gregory Soto contributed to an eighth-inning collapse against the Astros, Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Pirates are actively pursuing bullpen help. A rival executive pointed out that, while all teams are seeking upgrades in that area, the Pirates are being more aggressive in their search to improve a unit that has allowed the ninth-most runs (136) and walked the seventh-most batters (118) in Major League Baseball.
Moves have been made to try to mix things up, but they’ve all been internal. Carmen Mlodzinski was recently shifted back to a relief role and should be an asset in long relief once he actually pitches again. Evan Sisk, Brandan Bidois and Wilber Dotel weren’t a part of the equation on opening day, but have been added to the mix and contributed. Justin Lawrence and Isaac Mattson were expected to be key pieces and experienced their share of struggles. Now the former is in Minnesota after being designated for assignment and traded, while the latter is working through things with Class AAA Indianapolis. There’s still plenty more that can be done, though, as guys like Yohan Ramirez and Dennis Santana have experienced prolonged periods in which their reliability has dipped. There are a few dependable arms within the current unit, but even guys like Montgomery and Soto showed that they aren’t perfect.
It’s reasonable to want to rely on internal improvement. That’s a must. The guys that are in the bullpen at the moment need to be better. But when a team like this is capable of winning games behind a much-improved offense and a starting rotation that remains very good, it’s not the best idea to wait around and hope that this internal improvement will actually occur. This looks like a good team, but bullpen upgrades are an absolute must if they want to achieve what they’re capable of.
