Imagine the Running of the Bulls with only one bull. Yes, there will still be chaos, and one or two people will still get the horns. That lone, enraged sack of muscles with spears on four legs will undoubtedly still do some damage.
But just one bull leaves a lot of empty space in the road. If he goes right, it leaves an empty space to the left, and vice versa. It deprives us of the viral videos of hopeless runners getting tossed like ragdolls that for some reason you watch on repeat, even though it disgusts you. To get that body-flinging, potentially-animal-rights-violating mayhem that has become the crave of several nations and thousands of fans, the whole lane needs to be filled with a freight train of cattle.
For Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black, newly-signed closer Wade Davis is the biggest, baddest steer in his stable. But Black knows that it’ll be the other relievers that cover the width of the street in the later innings that will turn the bullpen from the pacifist Ferdinand to the vitriolic El Toro. Black, when addressing the media early in the 2018 Spring Training campaign, cited the depth and versatility of his relief corps as a strength, giving him flexibility late into the game.
“I think it can be interchangeable,” Black said. “A lot of those questions will be answered as we get into the season. I think what you saw last year was a dedicated closer. You can make a case that Wade will be that closer. Before that, you could see a lot of different guys. Based on what happened the night before, where they are at in their lineup. And we’ve got a good group of guys to choose from. [Mike] Dunn, [Adam] Ottavino, [Bryan] Shaw, [Jake] McGee, [Chris] Rusin. We’ve got some great options is the way I see it. I think they’ll be comfortable whether it’s the eight, the sixth, or the seventh.”
Because the options Black has in the bullpen are not only bountiful but are also, for the most part, reliable with a track record of success, he can piece together several different variations of his back-end without losing much by way of talent. Should Davis need a day off, McGee or a hopefully-rebounding Ottavino could slot in for a game, with the domino effect of their roles being opened up being seamlessly filled two or three spots down the line.
The abilities of Shaw and Rusin to step in for several innings day-in and day-out opens up the usage of McGee and Dunn to play left-on-left without losing a critical arm for the remainder of the game. The rounded staff will not only give Black more options on a game-to-game basis but allow him to give his players rest as needed, with every reliever he cited entering at least their age-30 season. With the parity of bullpens in general, but still familiarizing himself with two new and critical arms in Davis and Shaw, Black will utilize that depth to keep his team fresh, especially in the beginning months of 2018.
“We’re conscious of the arms early in the season,” Black said. “That will all be predicated on how they are throwing and how their arm feels.”
Thinking back to last season, what might Shaw and more reliable Ottavino have done for the workload of Greg Holland coming off Tommy John surgery and being the exclusive go-to ninth-inning man? Would his August collapse, in which he blew three saves and recorded four losses, have been avoided with a smaller workload preceding it?
Black and the Rockies hope that the length of a solid bullpen will not only elevate their talent but prolong it as well as the team seeks a return to October.
