Bucs know boosting middle relief is vital

MILWAUKEE -- The Pirates have seen a lot of games play out like Friday night’s series opener at Miller Park. Starter Steven Brault was removed with one out in the sixth inning, and Pittsburgh’s 4-0 deficit was already sizable enough that manager Clint Hurdle couldn’t justify burning his back-end relievers.

So Hurdle turned to his middle relief corps, the game quickly got out of hand, and it ended with the Brewers scoring 10 runs. Yacksel Ríos walked one of the three batters he faced and hit another, driving in a run. Williams Jerez walked in another run. Then Geoff Hartlieb, who finished the sixth inning, gave up four runs in the seventh.

The Pirates entered Saturday with a 4.96 bullpen ERA, their second-worst mark in the last 60 years; only the 1994 relievers’ collective 5.42 ERA was higher. Most of that falls on the middle-relief group, anyone outside of what Hurdle recently called his “core four” of Keone Kela (2.36 ERA), Richard Rodríguez (3.67), Francisco Liriano (3.49) and Michael Feliz (3.81).

“When you get to the right side of the bullpen, we’re good and we fight. You can only use those guys four times a week, whether people like it or not, and that’s being aggressive,” Hurdle said. “There comes a point in time where you can’t keep chasing deficits -- and I’ve done that a few times here in the last week, bringing Feliz in, two runs down, bringing Rodriguez in, three runs down, just trying to buy some time for your offense to spark.”

In other words, for the second straight year, the Pirates will enter the offseason desperately needing someone to step up and stabilize that part of the bullpen.

“As you evaluate the season, our middle relief, again, has struggled, and that’s why we have so many double-digit-runs-allowed games,” general manager Neal Huntington said last Sunday in Chicago. “We’ve said repeatedly that’s the weakest part of any team, and it’s been a real challenge for us this year to keep a deficit close. We’ve let a lot of games slip away in the middle innings when our relievers haven’t done what we needed them to do.”

On Saturday, the Pirates had 13 relievers in their bullpen. Six of them were claimed off waivers or acquired in a minor trade (for cash or a player to be named) this season: Chris Stratton, Yefry Ramírez, Parker Markel, Wei-Chung Wang, Rios and Jerez. Only three were completely homegrown: Clay Holmes, Alex McRae and Hartlieb.

The Bucs’ bullpens in 2013-15 were certainly enhanced by shrewd acquisitions, like Mark Melancon or even Jeanmar Gomez, but they also developed bullpen fixtures like Tony Watson, Jared Hughes and Justin Wilson. They’ve struggled to do that the last few years, with internal options like Holmes, Hartlieb, Dovydas Neverauskas and Montana DuRapau struggling to make the jump from Triple-A.

“We don’t really care where they come from. Ideally, they come from within, but nobody can fill every spot from within,” Huntington said last week. “But yes, we do need to find a way to help our young players make a better transition [to the Majors].”

Stratton is an example of a low-key acquisition that worked out well for the Pirates. He entered Saturday with a 3.35 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP in 24 appearances for the Pirates, 14 of which have been longer than one inning.

But Stratton is also an example of the impact absences have had on their bullpen. He didn’t pitch for nearly a month due to right side inflammation, and the Pirates struggled to fill his role. They’ve been without high-upside relievers Edgar Santana (Tommy John surgery) all season and Nick Burdi (neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome) since April, and they’re now missing 2018 setup man Kyle Crick (right hand surgery) and former closer Felipe Vazquez (arrested).

The Pirates hope that Santana, Burdi and Crick -- not to mention starter Chad Kuhl -- will improve the situation next season by filling those roles or allowing other pitchers to do so. But they would also like to see more from the group that’s been auditioning during the final month of the season.

“There’s going to be an external look. There’s going to be an internal look, based on what we saw from the people that we had here,” Hurdle said. “However, there’s no doubt that it’s been one of the areas that’s been most complicated for us throughout the season; the early exit of the starter or games underneath, we’ve been challenged to stay in and to continue to compete.”