Chapter 9: How The West Was Won: Bullpens

The bullpen is where MLB teams save money and lose games.

I went back and looked for the Dana Brown comment, but ultimately couldn’t track it down.

Did I make it up? I don’t think so, but without definitive proof, it’s impossible to say.

The comment intimated that if you want to pay for Alex Bregman, something has to be cut and the bullpen was likely to be an area for cost-cutting.

And how.

No Pressly, Neris, Ferguson or Graveman (didn’t pitch in 2024).

With everyone focused on the loss of Tucker and Bregman this has gone under the radar.

It’s an area that’s often taken for granted, one you don’t miss or generally think about until it goes bad.

It turns out the Astros didn’t resign Bregman and traded Tucker, but they also traded/lost all of the relievers listed above and others, including Seth Martinez.

The 2025 bullpen will look very different than the 2024 bullpen.

I’ve heard that, in general, a bullpen’s performance is volatile from season to season and even game to game.

You can’t depend on them like you would a starting pitcher, say Framber Valdez. The sample size is too small for that.

I haven’t studied the issue or read in-depth analysis, so I don’t know if that’s true, but if that’s baseball consensus it would make sense that a general manager would roll the dice if he or she was looking for areas to save a few dollars.

But there is good news. No other team in the AL West projects to have a better bullpen than the Astros, and with Josh Hader on the back end, other than Mason Miller the Astros potentially have the best closer in the division.

I still have questions about who Fangraphs has listed because of injuries to Whitley and Ort, but the point is, no other bullpen stands out.

Bryan Abreu looms large in the 2025 configuration, taking over for Pressly in the setup role.

Abreu is the definition of the uneven bullpen performances mentioned above, looking invincible one day and unable to throw a strike the next.

While regression should be expected from Tayler Scott, I’m comfortable with King and Ort, Whitley showed great potential, Okert had a fantastic spring and adds experience and Contreras is a stopgap until Dubin is healthy.

I could quibble that they should have signed Neris or maybe Maton, but in reality, the differences are likely to be minimal and other needs were and are more pressing.

This adds to the fascinating aspect of the AL West in 2025: The Mariners have the best rotation, the Astros the best lineup, the Rangers the best bench and the bullpen is a close call.

But here’s the thing: Having a closer matters.

In a division with Josh Hader, Mason Miller and Andre Munoz, the Rangers don’t have a reliever ranked higher than 82nd by FanGraphs.

They have a collection of solid relievers, but no dominant closer.

And that makes a difference.

CSJ Ranking of AL West Bullpens

1. Astros

2. Mariners

3. A’s

4. Rangers

5. Angels

Thanks for reading!