One of the biggest moves this offseason was the Yankees trading for closer Aroldis Chapman, giving them a back-end of the bullpen that includes the top 3 strikeout-per-nine relievers in MLB.
Chapman, Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances have all posted numbers that make them worthy of being closers. Both Chapman and Miller closed for the Reds and Yankees, respectively, in 2015, while Betances has mostly worked as a setup man (he did close while Miller was on the DL). Most would agree Betances’ work gets short shaft because he isn’t given the opportunity to compile saves.
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ESPN’s Jayson Stark has a plan for fixing that, and fixing the perception that pitchers like Betances don’t stack up to save compilers like Brad Boxberger, who didn’t have nearly as dominant a year. Stark proposed eliminating saves altogether, and replacing them with “relief points,” which would accurately – and easily – reward relievers for pitching in the highest-leverage scenarios.
Betances was Stark’s poster boy.
“Let's take you back to April 19, 2015. New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays. Seventh inning. One out. Yankees leading 5-3. But the Rays had a runner on second, so the tying run was at the plate. In came Dellin Betances. He went: strikeout, groundout, end of seventh. He then threw a scoreless eighth. Next, Andrew Miller marched in to get the last three outs. Shake hands. Drive home safely,” Stark wrote.
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It was a scenario that played out often in the Bronx. Stark spelled out the specifics, but essentially, the value of a pitcher’s outs increases the tighter the scenario. In this case, Betances earned five “relief points” while Miller, who earned a save, notched just two relief points.
Stark argues that the tweak to the system would not only help teams better evaluate relievers, it would elevate the strategy level during games because managers wouldn’t have to manage according to a statistic.
This metric would also bear out how the Royals have been so successful over the past two seasons without superstar sluggers, or elite starting pitching. Their bullpen, featuring Wade Davis and Greg Holland, has been downright dominant, as was the Yankees’ in 2015. By adding Chapman they’ve made the ‘pen even more formidable; with relief points, more MLB clubs might hop on the trend.
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