A 2017 Oakland A’s bullpen preview: Closer by Committee?
The A’s bullpen is full of talent.
The Oakland Athletics‘ bullpen was the problem in 2015 and the brightspot of 2016 when the rotation faltered, so we are taking a break from position players and focusing on the bullpen.
The players who are pretty much guaranteed to be in the bullpen are Ryan Dull, Sean Doolittle, John Axford, Ryan Madson and Santiago Casilla.
Out of those five guys, each one could be the closer and each one could be used as a LOOGY or in a matchup. However, it’s important to remember that Doolittle is the lone lefty in the A’s bullpen.
It appears that the A’s are going to go by “closer by committee,” which should work out just fine.
Madson will likely get the nod first, as the veteran of the staff but, when you look at Ryan Dull’s numbers and record from last season you’ll know that he never lets inherited runners score so using the kid in his sophomore season could be an option as well.
Doolittle, Casilla and Axford all have closing experience so it’s likely that it will be a day to day decision by A’s manager Bob Melvin.
If there is a sixth member of the bullpen it will likely be the left-hander Daniel Coulombe, but that remains to be seen.
If one thing is going to go well for Oakland this season it’s going to be the pitching (And hopefully, Khris Davis hits another 42 bombs!), assuming that Sonny Gray returns to his dominant form and Sean Manaea improves on the potential he exhibited last season.
The same goes for Kendall Graveman and Jharel Cotton. However, we are talking about the bullpen today so here are the pitcher who will make up the Oakland Athletics’ bullpen in 2017. Each could be a potential closer.
Ryan Dull is the pitcher you want in when there are runners on base.
It doesn’t matter what inning it is or which pitchers needs to be taken out of the game. Whether it’s a starter or a reliever there is just one guy that you want to bring in, often times there are more than one instance in a game in which you which he could come in.
Ryan Dull does not let inherited runners score. pulled off something incredible. He pitched into July and never let a runner left on base by the pitcher before him score.
He set a record stranding 36 runners, something that had not been done since at least 1961 (when complete records began being recorded) according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.
“You knew it was going to eventually happen, and especially in that situation, I was going to do anything,” Dull said after the game. “A double play was going to help us more than that one run. I’d gladly sacrifice it to get the double play there.”
Not only did Dull make himself indispensable to the Athletics’ bullpen, he proved that he’s a good teammate to have.
He didn’t mind that his streak had ended. He was just glad that the team got out of the inning and eventually got the win against the Astros last July.
The 27-year-old right-hander isn’t the type you’d expect to be breaking big league records in his rookie season.
He was chosen in the 32nd round of the 2012 amateur draft by the Oakland Athletics and spent plenty of time in the minors.
Yet, he’s taken every opportunity that has come his way and made the most of it. From getting promoted from Double-A Midland to Triple-A Nashville to making the 25-man roster out of spring training last season.
And he certainly made the most of his opportunities to pitch last year. He finished 2016 with a 2.42 ERA and a 0.874 WHIP.
There’s every reason to consider Dull as a potential closer. He’ll likely finish out more than the nine he closed out in 2016, if the “closer by committee” plan stays in place.
John Axford didn’t have the best year in 2016, his first with the Oakland Athletics, but it wasn’t a terrible year either.
The 33-year-old righty finished the 2016 season with a 3.97 ERA over 65.2 innings pitched and struck out 60 batters during that span. That isn’t too bad but his ERA was a bit inflated yet consistent with his season-long ERAs during his eight year big league career as well as his overall career ERA of 3.58.
Axford finished 13 games and accumulated three saves out of ten opportunities which isn’t a good percentage rate at all but the sample size was small.
However, Axford has been extremely successful as a closer in his past with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Axford was signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 2006 but made his big league debut with Milwaukee in 2009.
In 2010 he collected 24 saves in 27 opportunities, blowing just three.
In 2011, arguably the best season of his career to date, Madson led the National League in saves with 45, blowing just two save opportunities. He finished the year with a 1.95 ERA and finished in the top ten in the Cy Young Award voting and the top 20 in the MVP Award voting.
That’s pretty high praise for a relief pitcher, even a closer, these days. The following season he saved another 35 games for MIlwaukee.
Axford then became somewhat of a journeyman after that spending time with the St. Louis Cardinals, Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies before landing a two-year deal with the Athletics last year.
So, while he may not have had his best season in 2016, Axford is a proven closer. He has what it takes to shut down his opponents in the ninth inning, making him another candidate for the “closing committee.”
Santiago Casilla began his career in Oakland.
In fact, he’s spent his entire career in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Casilla actually began his career with the Oakland Athletics way back in 2000 when they signed him as an amateur free agent under the name Jairo Garcia.
He made his debut with the A’s in 2004 and things were rough for him in his first three stints in the big leagues. Between 2004 and he pitched just 11.0 innings to the tune of a 9.82 ERA.
In 2007, Casilla began to improve and find his stride endotwing the season with a much more reasonable 4.44 ERA over 50.2 innings. Over his final two seasons, of what was now his first stint with the A’s, Casilla was mediocre posting a 4.93 ERA.
He was granted free-agency after the 2009 season and signed with the San Francisco Giants in early 2010.
There Casilla really came into his own. In seven seasons with the Giants Casilla went 32-22 with a 2.42 ERA.
More importantly, he also learned how to close out games. He saved 123 games for San Francisco.
Casilla started closing for the Giants in 2012 and saved 24 games out of 31 save opportunities. The following season he only saved two games but he was being used in a different role.
Casilla gained more closing experience during his time with the team on the west side of the bay. From 2014-2016, he saved 88 games.
Towards the end of his time there, however, he did start to falter, blowing nine saves in 2016 and was removed from the closer role.
Still, he has experience in what is a challenging and potentially game changing role which is why he will be one of the A’s many closers when he rejoins the team from the east side of the bay in 2017.
Sean Doolittle was drafted by Oakland 41st overall in the 2007 amateur draft.
While he had pitched in highschool and college he also played first base. It was the position he was drafted to play.
Unfortunately Doolittle suffered from multiple knee injuries and was unable to continue on at first base. So, the left-hander converted back to pitching in 2011.
After making his debut with the big league club in 2012 Doolittle was used mainly as the set-up man for then-closer Grant Balfour.
It wasn’t until the 2014 season when former-Baltimore Orioles pitcher-turned-Oakland Athletic Jim Johnson literally forgot how to pitch that Doolittle was officially given the closer role in May of that year.
He pitched so well that he was one of six All-Stars on the American League squad from the Oakland Athletics.
Doolittle finished the 2014 season having saved 22 games after having 26 opportunities and posted a 2.73 ERA.
The past two seasons have not been good to the only lefty currently slated to be in the bullpen. He suffered a slighty tear to his left rotator cuff just prior to the 2015 season and was limited to only 12 appearances. He went 1-0 with four saves and a 3.95 ERA.
In 2016, Doolittle was back to being his old self again, that is until the end of June during a Saturday game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Something didn’t feel right but Doolittle knew it wasn’t his rotator cuff.
This time the pain was towards the front part of his shoulder, not the rear. It turned out labrum pains were what what were slowing Doolittle down and he landed on the disabled list until September 5th.
With the A’s far out of postseason range, Doolittle was able to pitch until Oct.1. He appeared in nine more games in 2016, posting a slightly elevated 4.32 ERA but that wasn’t too bad for a guy who had missed almost two seasons.
If Doolittle can remain healthy in 2017, there is every chance he’ll be a part-time, or even full-time, closer as often times the whole “closer by committee” idea doesn’t always last all season long. It did not in 2014 and it may not again.
Regardless Doolittle’s primary objective will have to be to remain healthy, and as the only official lefty in the bullpen thus far, there’s a chance he may be used in more matchup situations.
Ryan Madson was both a reliever and, for one year a starter, from 2003 through 2011 with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Over that span of his career, Madson pitched a total of 630.0 innings, logging 52 total saves (32 of which came in 2011), made 18 starts and posted a 3.59 ERA.
Then came the kicker, the news that no pitcher whether 14 years old like the now-Phillies’ potential starter Alec Asher, nor then-30-year-old Ryan Madson ever wants to hear. THey’re told they’ve torn the ulnar collateral ligament and require Tommy John surgery.
Madson didn’t face another live batter until he reported to training camp with the then-recent American League Champion Kansas City Royals.
It’s not even clear who Madson who “had butterflies” that day, knew whether he would ever pitch again, let alone be effective.
However, Madson defied the odds and helped the Royals defeat the 2015 National League Champions New York Mets just a year after they had been defeated by the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 World Series.
In December 2015, the Oakland Athletics showed the same confidence in Madson that the Royals had, however, they offered the now 35-year-old Madson a three-year, $22 million deal.
Madson accepted the A’s offer and got the majority of the Athletics’ saves in 2016. It’s thus far assumed by many, despite the “closer by committee” mentality going into the 2017 season that Madson will continue to be the one who will get the majority of save opportunities.
With that said, as has been noted in every preview that White Cleat Beat has brought you leading up and now to the beginning of 2017 spring training, nothing is ever 100 percent during spring training and the rest will become more apparent as Opening Day approaches.
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So, the question is for the Oakland Athletics is this: Will they end up using a “closer by committee” approach during spring training?
Will the team just guess the entire season? Or will Bob Melvin make an extremely informed decision each and every time a closer is needed?
This writer believes in Bob Melvin but 162 games is a quite a long time and takes six months to play?
Or will the Oakland Athletics change strategies and figure out which one of these simply amazing relievers should be the closer?
Only time will tell.
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