Bullpen in 2026: Who's next?

[Slateman]

I mean, an actual closer would go a long way to fixing this pen. Robert Suarez, Ryan Helsley, or Kyle Finnegan wouldn't have cost that much and we'd be having serious conversations about pushing for a WC.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Besides Varland I'm really liking Parker. A great turn around.

He's been getting the job done.

I'm curious: now with Granillo and Perez off the MLB team, who in the bullpen do you think is not doing well enough to deserve a roster spot?

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I mean, an actual closer would go a long way to fixing this pen. Robert Suarez, Ryan Helsley, or Kyle Finnegan wouldn't have cost that much and we'd be having serious conversations about pushing for a WC.

That's sort of my preferred way of putting together a bullpen. The path not taken. However, if Varland is capable of putting together that kind of season, and Beeter is effective coming back, we may not be b!+ching about the bullpen for the first time in years. As it is, the relief performance since mid-April has been middle of the pack by a lot of measures, and that includes Mikolas's and Littell's games with openers.

[varoadking]

He is trying to find undervalued talent...

It's the Natinals way...

[imref]

It's the Natinals way...

it's every team's way.  The Dodgers even traded for Alex Call.

[varoadking]

it's every team's way.  The Dodgers even traded for Alex Call.

The White Sox are using Fedde as a starter...

[JCA-CrystalCity]

All of a sudden, none of the 3 lefties should be available tomorrow. Poulin threw 38 Friday + Thursday,  and today Lovelady threw 30 and Parjer 39. Poulin is going to have his arm fall off at this rate. Most of this is because Littell can't give them 5 innings.

[aspenbubba]

Besides Varland I'm really liking Parker. A great turn around.

I’m officially offering a “mea cupla”.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Parker relies on deception. I think the Marlins have seen him a lot, and due to the use of Poulin the two days prior and to burning Lovelady as the opener, they were absolutely ready for him. Probably used trajekt or some other visual prep for the leftyhitters. Add in bringing him in an innng prior, and the up and down effect, I think he was due to get hit

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Could do worse than Varland, Schultz, Ribalta, and Lord as your primary righty options.

[rbw5t]

I would have liked to see Ribalta get a second inning tonight.  Only threw 6 pitches and dominated.  If the Reds would have tied it in the 10th, we'd have been in trouble, having used everybody between last night and tonight.  It all worked out, but I think Butera is still a work in progress on bullpen management.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Digging a bit further, Ribalta came in to face the bottom half of the order. He got through 6-7-8 (Lowe, Stephenson, and Dunn) quickly. I think Butera did not want him facing De La Cruz,  who was up 3rd in the 9th. Maybe you let him  pitch to McLain and Myers, but then you are in the position of either letting him face their best hitter (or hitters) in a tied game in the 9th on the road or bringing in Varland cold for that matchup. As it worked out, McLain led off with a double, then Varland was able to work past De La Curz and Stewart. The 10th  started with a lefty (Bleday), then one righty (Steer), then back to Lowe etc... With 2 lefties and a 2 run lead, Butera probably felt OK with goign to Poulin to ride or die. Poulin ended up having to go a bit longer than just 4-5-6, but it was against the bottom of the order after the pinch hitterss had been burned earlier.

I can understand the thinking. What I hope Butera learned (or has learned) is that Lovelady is his higher lev lefty reliever, Parker his multi-inning guy, and Poulin needs to be slotted in.

At this point, I have enough confidence in the top 4 righties (Varland, Schultz, Ribalta, and Lord) that I would DFA Zak Kent and bring up Alvarez. They need a fresh multi-inning guy. I'd keep him around and have Parker take on more important innings.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

by the way, it's Alvarez's turn to pitch at AAA tonight, so he should be ready if there's a need to start moving pieces in the bullpen

[JCA-CrystalCity]

one more point:

With Griffin starting today, you probably are going to be leaning more on the righty relievers than the lefties because Tito will overload his lineup with righties vs Griffin. You can probably sneak by with just Lovelady available.  This would line up Poulin to open next time Littell is due to pitch (Friday).

Getting short starts back to back from Mikolas and Irvin stresses the bullpen, but using 3 righties (Lord, Schultz, Kent) behind Mikolas then the 3 lefties behind Irvin makes some sense if you planned on using more righties behind Griffin and a lefty/righty combo for Friday.

[imref]

The Wiemer as a reliever experiment isn't working. 22.50 ERA

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Bit of a profile of Lovelady by Danielle Allentuck of the WaPo from 5/13. He pitched later that night so the stats mentioned don't reflect his outing that night when he went an inning, gave up a walk and a hit but no runs. Mentions how his 2 year old son helps him keep going after being released 9 times  in the last 3 seasons.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2026/05/13/richard-lovelady-fueled-by-fatherhood-finds-consistency-washington-2/

After being released by  the Nats this spring, getting picked up  again by the Mets, then getting released on 4/11

This time, unlike previous occurrences, he decided to go home to Arizona to spend time with JT. He was pitching well and knew that he would get a call soon, so he wanted to take advantage of any time he could with his son. When he’s on an East Coast team, he’s only able to see him about once a month.

On April 16, the phone rang with the news that the Nationals had acquired him. This time, he took a new approach to his preparation, drawing on what he learned in his last stint with the Mets.

The night before the game, he’ll typically be told what role he’ll be in the next day, whether it’ll be as a long man, set-up guy, high-leverage reliever or opener. The day of, he’ll be told what part of the lineup he’ll face. That’s when he’ll pull out his black-bounded notebook with the phrase “1 percent better every day” on it and make a detailed report of the hitters he expects to face, plus anyone who might pinch-hit for them.

Afterward, he’ll make his scouting cards, an index-sized cheat sheet that he puts in a protective sleeve and keeps in his pocket. On the card, he writes down the hitter’s name, then jots down what pitch he should throw with two strikes and another safe pitch. Then he bubbles in whether they are aggressive when the bases are empty and how that changes when someone is on base.

He checks his cards before each batter and doesn't rely exclusively on the catchers.

He's been something of a good luck piece for the bullpen, at least until yesterday, Since his pickup, the bullpen's ERA had been 3.76 (not counting the last games).

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Bullpens are notoriously volatile. Performances oscillate from year to year as teams search for the right alchemy. The Nationals seem to have found the right roles for their relievers, particularly after the way Butera handled Jake Irvin’s short start Wednesday and how deftly he handled the six innings he needed from the bullpen.

Navigating and managing a bullpen is an all-encompassing task as far as knowing when to get guys warmed up, recognizing which players need a rest and using them in optimal situations.

“The biggest difference is bullpen usage, just understanding how to plan that out, when to get guys up,” Butera said of managing in the majors versus the minors. “[In the] minor leagues, the pitching is mostly scripted already, just because of usage and trying to get certain prospects in.”
...
Lovelady said the coaching staff — pitching coach Simon Mathews, assistant pitching coach Sean Doolittle and assistant pitching coach/bullpen coach Dustin Glant — has been good about communicating to the bullpen before each series how it should attack a lineup and when it can expect to be used.

https://www.thebanner.com/sports/nationals-mlb/nationals-lose-reds-15-1-MHCUSATXA5BSBI3QXRUO2SHBKI/

Article notes the nats bullpen has had a 3.62 ERA over the past couple of weeks, which is middling but OK when combined with a high scoring offense.

[imref]

Saw earlier only once has Butera used relievers on consecutive days

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Saw earlier only once has Butera used relievers on consecutive days

it's a bit more often than that. Poulin has been used on consecutive days, and I think Henry, too. I think Poulin might be the only guy since mid-April, maybe last week?

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Checking.... poulin on 5/7&8, 4/16&17, 4/7&8.

Henry 4/7&8.

Didn't check beyond those 2.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Suggests this is a Varland Lovelady Lord Parker day.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Schultz back to back today. Did it once previously on 4/16-17 before he was sent down

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Praise Our Lord
https://www.federalbaseball.com/washington-nationals-analysis/91274/brad-lord-is-ultimate-glue-guy-for-washington-nationals

Sallick Likens Lord to Stammen:

This season, Lord has done a great job limiting free passes. In 35 innings, Lord has issued just six walks. I just love the way Lord attacks hitters. He knows he can get ground balls at an elite 56% clip, so he does not really fear hitters.

Between his multi-inning role and overall reliability, Lord reminds me of former Nats reliever and current Padres manager Craig Stammen. Both Lord and Stammen started as starting pitchers/swingmen before landing in a multi-inning relief role. Stammen ended up having a 13 year big league career where he had a 3.66 ERA. He did this as a 12th round pick. As an 18th rounder, I think Lord can do similar things.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

https://districtondeck.com/how-has-richard-lovelady-been-able-to-find-success-with-the-nationals-in-2026-01ksd6nap3z6

Lovelady's results are also not indicative of a en elite reliever. He strikes out batters only 20.6 percent of the time which is in the 38th percentile of Major League pitchers and he walks batters 14.4 percent of the time which is in the 8th percentile of major league pitchers. This formula is not conducive to success. He gives free passes and does not have the ability to prevent batters from putting the ball in play.

However, one skill that Lovelady does have is the ability to induce ground balls. 51.6 percent of batted balls against Lovelady are hit on the ground, which is well above average. It's hard for opposing teams to do damage against Lovelady when their contact mostly stays in the infield. Moreover, Lovelady can correct for his propensity to walk batters by generating double plays. In addition to this, hitters generally do not make hard contact against Lovelady as his hard hit and barrel percentage are both well above average.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

In the GDT thread for yesterday's game, Gata pointed out that it may be time to make bullpen moves given the heavy use this weekend:

Have to send a bullpen guy or two down.  Everyone is spent.   We really need to get Cranz up here.   He may be the best pitcher in the organization.

I  don't believe the bullpen needs a move today, but it's close. Roster Resource at FG tracks each relievers appearances and pitches over the last 6 days, and TalkNats usually sums up usage for at least the last 3 days in their set up of GDTs.

Using Roster Resource, while yesterday ended up having 4 relievers used to bring home Griffin's start, I'm not to concerned about calling on Varland (12 pitches) and probably Ribalta (10) again tonight. Varland was lightly used last week (12 pitches Friday after 3 days off), while Ribalta had had a day off after throwing 47 pitches over 2 days.

The other two relievers used  yesterday, Alvarez and Lovelady, should be avoided. I don't think Alvarez is still a starter in conversion and had been kept on a regular schedule. He also may be called on to fill in for Irvin when it is up next weekend or the turn after that. Lovelady only threw 15 ptiches, but it's been 3 days in a row.

Beeter threw 37 pitches Thursday (20) and Friday (17), but with 2 days off I think he'd be ready to go. Poulin in AAA threw 18 pitches 1 inning Friday. Parker threw 31 pitches Friday but has  thrown multiple innings after 2 days off twice before so Butera is probably planning on that behind Littell today. Lord should be unavailable. Schultz was lightly used last week to help him recover from 3 days in a row 5/16-18. His only appearance over the last 6 days was on Friday (14 pitches).

So, by my count, I'd say Varland, Parker, Beeter, Schultz, Poulin, and maybe Ribalta should be available tonight. Only guys I think who are clearly out are Alvarfez and Lovelady.

Oh, as for Cranz, he's off the 40 man roster so would require moving some one off it as well as optioning out a guy. Everyone in the bullpen other than Lovelady has options. I agree with Gata that he's been nothing but awesome every level in the system. IIRC, he closed for Fredericksburg in the playoffs in 2024. Had a stint on the 60 day IL at the end of last year and can be walk-prone, but he's double-digits K/9 every season, and this year his K% has  been in the 35%-40% range.

Of  the 3 AAA relievers on the 40 man roster, Fernandez, Granillo, and Zak Kent, Fernandez hasn't pitched since 5/7 and the others have been meh in AAA. Henry might be a more realistic option if they are OK with  his rehab.