Previewing the Pirates: Team has bull's-eye on the bullpen, searching for a closer

When asked in December if the Pittsburgh Pirates have a closer, Derek Shelton gave a point-blank answer that put a bull’s-eye on the bullpen.

“As of right now,” Shelton said, “no, I really don’t think we do.”

The Pirates didn’t have a closer last season, either, as two-time All-Star Felipe Vazquez was in jail and Keone Kela was injured. Not that they expect to have many late-inning leads to protect, but the bullpen blowing games became a glaring problem as the Pirates were 8-15 in one-run games and 1-5 in extra innings last season.

Richard Rodriguez, however, was one of the bright spots in the Pirates’ bullpen — save perhaps his ill-fated wild pitch toward the home dugout in when his spike caught the mound in the eighth inning of a 2-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 9. The 30-year-old Rodriguez was 3-2 with a 2.70 ERA, a career-best 36.6% strikeout rate in 24 appearances, finishing 15 games and saving four.

“Richie did an unbelievable job stepping into that job last year,” Shelton said. “The great thing about Richie is the entire time he was doing it, every single day, he was telling me, ‘Use me how you want. Use me as much as you want.’ The fact that earlier in the year he threw multiple innings and has that flexibility, right now it would be too early to say (he’s the closer). We’ll see how it works from there in the offseason.”

That makes the bullpen one of the biggest question marks on the team when Pirates pitchers and catchers report Monday to spring training at Pirate City in Bradenton, Fla.

The Pirates lost Kela and Derek Holland to free agency, Nick Tropeano and Brandon Waddell to waiver claims, traded Nik Turley and parted ways with Nick Burdi, Dovydas Neverauskas and Yacksel Rios in the offseason.

That leaves right-handers Rodriguez, Tyler Bashlor, Blake Cederlind, Kyle Crick, Michael Feliz, Geoff Hartlieb, Nick Mears and Chris Stratton and lefties Austin Davis and Sam Howard as their returning relievers. They also get Edgar Santana back after he missed 2019 with Tommy John surgery and last season with a suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs.

Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said this winter that he hoped to add both starting pitching and relievers, and did so through trades and free agency. The Pirates acquired potential bullpen pieces in Wil Crowe from Washington in the Josh Bell trade, David Bednar of Mars from San Diego in the Joe Musgrove trade, Jose Soriano, Luis Oviedo and Shea Spitzbarth in the Rule 5 Draft.

Oviedo is an intriguing candidate, given his 98-mph fastball and the Rule 5 requirement that he spend the season on the major league roster. Cherington believes Oviedo could be a future starter but is more likely to spend this season in the bullpen.

“Oviedo has the pitches to be a starter and certainly has the pitches to be a multi-inning reliever,” Cherington said. “If he’s doing what he’s capable of doing, we think he’ll have a chance to do that in the major leagues in 2021. We will certainly give him every opportunity to do that.”

The Pirates also added nine potential relievers as non-roster invites to spring training in right-handers Cody Bolton, Chase De Jong, Yerry De Los Santos, Jandel Gustave, Clay Holmes and James Marvel and lefties Braeden Ogle, Chasen Shreve and Blake Weiman.

“We feel like we have a number of guys that are candidates to be in our bullpen, more guys than we have spots for who are candidates to be in our bullpen,” Cherington said, “so I feel pretty good about the competition for the bullpen but would like to continue to add to that.”