Mailbag: Another arm in the ‘pen?

Written by Colin on January 4, 2008 – 10:20 am

Cameron wrote:

Why is there so much talk about shoring up the bullpen? To my recollection, the only turd in our pen last year was Wickman. I mean, sure, there were injuries and seemingly occasional lapses in talent, but I thought that the bullpen held up pretty well considering excess work due to the 3, 4, and 5 spots in the rotation.

Cameron, you’re right - the bullpen did pretty good last year all things considered.  That said, we’ve lost Ron Mahay, Dotel, and Ascanio - three of the arms that propelled the ‘pen to a decent finish down the stretch.Last year we lost Mike Gonzales to an injury and season-ending surgery in June or July.  So this year there’s reason to pay attention to the ‘pen and make sure we have some good arms there.

Now, leading the competition for the closer spot is Rafael Soriano.  Gonzales and Peter Moylan will help with setup, and the newly acquired Will Ohman will be the left-handed arm to fill the spot left by Mahay’s departure.  I certainly don’t think there’s reason for alarm regarding the bullpen, but it’s also not the strongest ‘pen in the majors and could use another solid arm or two to hold us over.

So Wren could do two things - one is trade for or sign another middle reliever.  The other is he could wait for Spring Training - see who doesn’t make the rotation and throw them in the ‘pen.  We’ve done that before with success and it keeps the young guys sharp pitching major league ball until they get their spot in the rotation.

We’ll watch to see what happens.  I think we’ve got a good basis for a bullpen and it’ll shape up even more as we head into the spring.

Posted in Mailbag |