This goes without saying IMO that the Nats bullpen leaves a lot to be desired.
The starters as a group aren’t exactly world beaters, but they do have legit, 3-5 starter skills.
So what is next?
DJ Herz is coming back from TJ; as is Trevor Williams. And Jake Irvin is likely returning soon. Given the current following five starters on the 26 man roster:
What should the Nats do? My take is simple based on these two articles from December and January:
- Whether the Nats use tandem starters, or
- stacked starters
And just today (June 17) Levi Weaver had an article in The Windup Newletter titled Mariners add piggy to piggyback plan. Plus: Tyler Rogers’ opposite strategy which is strikingly similar to the approaches above.
How about a rotating piggyback … rotation?
Levi Weaver, The Windup Newsletter
I’ll let John Trupin of Yahoo! Sports explain:
“Instead of limiting the piggyback to Luis Castillo and Bryce Miller, after apparent discussion and planning with the entire rotation, the club will be rotating the piggybacking through all six starters to afford each an opportunity to be stacked with another starter at some point. Reportedly, the decision (or at least the input from the rotation) was unanimously in favor of sharing the start-sharing load.”
Wait, so all the starters came together, saw that two of their brethren were being made to piggyback and collectively said, “OK, we’ll all piggyback a little to share the load”?
So maybe this idea is catching on???? So here goes.
Once Irvin, Herz and Williams are available why not use them as stacked/tandem starters. The linked articles demonstrate that neither approach stresses out the bullpen given the 13 pitcher limit to the 26 man roster.
Does anyone here really believe that there are more than 5 bullpen guys who deserve a 26 man spot over the 8 pitchers listed above. Beyond Clayton Beeter, Orlando Ribalta, Brad Lord and perhaps Gus Varland, I can’t name them.
Both Jarlin Susana and Travis Sykora are rule 5 eligible this December. While there may not be a rule 5 draft due to the CBA, maybe the Nats don’t risk it. Call them both up as bullpen guys once they are recovered. There have been more than a few folks commenting that Susana’s future is as a closer. Why not given both Susana and Sykora their introduction to MLB as relievers.?
With 5 righties and 3 lefties deciding how to stack/tandem/piggyback them provides for some pretty interesting possibilities.
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